Berlin Festival Selects Mona Zaki-Produced Short Film ‘Alone’

“Alone,” a short film co-produced by Egyptian actor Mona Zaki, has been selected for the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin, the film’s team announced on Instagram.

The annual festival runs from October 7 to 11 at the Kino Moviemento, showcasing international shorts and features made by women alongside music videos, panels, and networking events.

Directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mona Daoud, who co-wrote the film with Shahira Galal, “Alone” was produced by Zaki alongside May Abdel Asim. The story follows Mady, an older woman with dementia who refuses to accept her condition and believes her daughters have abandoned her, and the caregiver who tends to her while carrying grief of her own. The film stars Egyptian dancer and choreographer Karima Mansour, founder of the MAAT Dance Company and the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center, alongside actor Latifa Fahmy.

Zaki co-founded HerStory Films with Abdel Asim, a company dedicated to producing work by women across Egypt and the wider Arab world. “Alone” was developed through the HerStory Films incubator in partnership with the Dutch Embassy in Egypt, which has supported 47 projects through development and produced five short films to date.

The film premiered in April at the fifth Hollywood Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles and has since been selected by eight festivals, picking up three awards along the way.

Zaki began her acting career as a teenager, making her stage debut under director Mohamed Sobhi before starring in “Scheherazade Tell Me a Story,” which screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. She received the Faten Hamama Excellence Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2020, where festival president Mohamed Hefzy praised her as a defining star of her generation.

Her recent credits include the Arabic remake of “Perfect Strangers” for Netflix and “Flight 404,” Egypt’s submission for the Academy Award for best international feature film. In December, she portrayed legendary singer Umm Kulthum in “El Sett,” directed by Marwan Hamed, which premiered at the Marrakech International Film Festival and had its European debut in Rotterdam.

Zaki also serves as a brand ambassador for L’Oreal Paris, having walked in the label’s Paris Fashion Week show in 2024 alongside Kendall Jenner and Jane Fonda, and represented the brand at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.