Asmaa (2011)

Asmaa or Asma'a (Arabic: أسماء‎) is a 2011 Egyptian drama film, and is the first such feature film to present AIDS patients sympathetically. Written and directed by Amr Salama, the film tells the history of a woman with HIV who struggles to live under the burden of keeping her HIV status secret, and then the dilemma she faces when offered the opportunity to appear on a television talk show. It is based on a true story of a woman who died from a burst gallbladder after doctors refused to operate on her because she had AIDS. The director, Amr Salama, intended the film to raise awareness about AIDS: in his words, to correct the "misconceptions and lies" about the disease, since more people are dying from the misconceptions than from the lack of treatment. The film is not about AIDS, but rather the battle against social prejudice in Egypt, and about "love, courage, overcoming fear, and fighting for personal rights".

Synopsis

Asmaa (Hend Sabry) is a woman in her 40s living with her aging father Hosni (Sayed Ragab) and teenage daughter Habiba (Fatma Adel) in Cairo, and struggling to support them with her meagre earnings from a menial job at Cairo International Airport. She is HIV-positive and requires surgery on her gallbladder, without which she will die. Doctors refuse her surgery when, on the point of entering the operating theatre, she reveals that she has AIDS.

Acteurs