by Ibrahim Shehata

A particularly significant chapter in Federico Wardal’s international career is his work in Egyptian auteur cinema with filmmaker Sherif El-Azma. Wardal appears in Pilot for an Egyptian Air Hostess Soap Opera and Rice City, two works that entered prestigious international circuits of experimental cinema and contemporary art, from Manifesta 8 and the International Film Festival Rotterdam to Home Works Beirut and the Fundació Antoni Tàpies. The films also attracted critical attention from BOMB Magazine, Frieze, Bidoun and The National, as well as academic analysis. This body of work places Wardal within one of the most intellectual and experimental dimensions of contemporary Arab cinema.
Sherif El Azma : “ Rice City “ starring WARDAL
— a landmark work of contemporary Egyptian cinema, internationally acclaimed for its visionary fusion of film noir, dream, psychoanalysis and experimental art.