EGY 1983 | Director, Editor: Ateyyat El Abnoudy | Camera: Emad Farid | Sound: Ibrahim Abdellatif | Lighting: Elsayed El Araby | Music: Taha Mohamed Ghazaly | Production: Pierre Hoffmann, Faust Film München, Ateyyat El Abnoudy, Abnoud Film, Kairo | Colour | 16mm | dubbed german version | 31 min | EZEF

PERMISSIBLE DREAMS embodies many of the central themes that Al-Abnoudy would return to time and again throughout her career: the intersections of class, labor, social justice, and the perspectives of women. The film follows farmer Oum Said, who—although she doesn’t read or write—provides a range of essential services to her family. She serves as bookkeeper, doctor, administrator, and visionary, working, in her own words, “to the limits of her possibilities.” In step with Al-Abnoudy’s signature approach to documentary, PERMISSIBLE DREAMS is entirely narrated by Oum Said herself, who describes her daily life on her own terms. The result is an intimate portrait of one individual that resonates across a broader look at social class and identity. (Dareen Hussein, Layla Muchnik-Benali: Film series Signs of Remembering: Women’s Resistance in Middle Eastern and North African Documentaries of Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University 2021)

This film, along with MUJERES DEL PLANETA / WOMEN OF EL PLANETA by Maria Barea (Peru 1981), is part of the seven-part series "As Women See It", distributed by the Evangelical Centre for Political and Developmental Film Work, EZEF.