Egyptian-Austrian director Abu Bakr Shawky drew from his family’s personal history to make “ The Stories ,” which spans between the late 60s and 80s, and depicts life in his native country during that period from the cross-cultural prism that has formed his vision as an artist.

After making a splash with his first feature, “Yomeddine” – which had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes – Shawky followed up with Saudi-set travel movie “Hajjan,” which premiered at Saudi’s Red Sea Film Festival in 2023. He is now back in Jeddah with “The Stories,” in the Red Sea competition.

The film takes its cue from the fact that when his father, who is named Ahmed, was an aspiring pianist in Cairo in 1967 he became pen-pals with a young Austrian woman named Liz, who is now Sh

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