Winner Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, The GIEFF Student Award

Co-presented by International Documentary Association

Inspired by the everyday struggle of Micro-bus drivers in Cairo, Flox, the title of the film and the name of the Volkswagen micro- bus as pronounced by Its drivers, is an observational documentary that looks at the intricate interplay between class and gender. Specifically, it explores how micro-bus drivers perceive and negotiate their masculinity in a mega-city like Cairo, for them, driving a difficult vehicle, handling inter-group conflict, struggling with poverty, surviving with substance abuse only made them wish not to foresee their children inheriting the same job. The film is about the beauty as well as the dark side of the chaotic life of the urban poor, who are forced to create a state within a state in order to live.

Salerno International Film Festival 2020

TAC International Film Festival 2020

About the Filmmaker

Hady Mahmoud was born in Ras Gharib, Red Sea, Egypt in 1988. After he graduated from the Faculty of Literature, History Department in 2010, he started studying film directing at the High Cinema Institute of Cairo in 2011. Since 2014, Hady has worked in the field as an Assistant Director for many shorts, one feature film, Poisonous Roses (2018), and tons of TV commercials in Egypt. Flox is his debut film. Hady was inspired to shoot this movie after passing by the same bus station everyday on his way to film school. He was inspired by cinema verité and loved how the place was drawing in chaos, beautiful chaos, but also somehow organized too, which took him on a journey to discover more about the place. 

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