Dir: Sarah Goher | Egypt, Drama 2025
1940’s Hollywood actor and comedian W.C. Fields is rumoured to have coined the phrase, “never work with children or animals. Children and animals can be unpredictable, they certainly have the ability to steal scenes and upstage an adult”.
Well Doha Ramadan certainly steals the limelight in this touching new Egyptian crowd-pleaser that pictures the class divide from a kid’s perspective in Egypt today
Directed by Sarah Goher and co-written and exec-produced by Mohamed Diab (Clash). The film, Egypt’s Oscar hopeful, world premiered at TriBeCa 2025 where it garnered three prizes including the Nora Ephron award for Best Screenplay
Little Doha plays Toha an endearing eight year old who works as a go for for a wealthy Cairo family where the director brings alive the harsh reality on the streets of the Egyptian capital where even the weakest members of society strive hard to make a living with whatever means possible. And when it comes to enterprise the Egyptians are real troupers – it brings tears to your eyes when you see children and crippled old people desperately trying to survive through their own initiatives, and puts beggars in the West to shame.
Toha is so keen to make her friend Nelly happy on her birthday. racking her brains to come up with idea for a lovely present. She even ends up risking her life wading through the waters of the Nile river at sunset, where her own father drowned, catching fish to sell at the market her mother warning her to be careful.
In scenes that are some of the most enchanting of the entire film Toha then goes to market, trading her catch to all and sundry in an effort to raise money.
But Toha is never sentimentalised as a character. She can stand up for herself as we when find out when she pesters a group of men to give her a lift. Luckily the Egyptians are good-natured and happy to help anyone in need, particularly children who ask nicely.
Eventually Toha comes up with the perfect idea for the birthday gift and cadges a lift to the party with a child taxi driver. It’s hard to believe both kids are so mature for their age, forced to grow up quickly in this harsh reality of poverty.
And while the privileged Nelly. the daughter of her mother’s employer, gets a new iPhone for her birthday and a show with a magician Nelly gets something far more rewarding: the satisfaction of achievement. @MeredithTaylor
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! will represent EGYPT in next year’s Oscar race