Private Project

First Sky

A young skater from Alexandria receives a Super 8 camera from his older brother who has recently emigrated. Over the course of a long summer by the sea, he begins to use the camera in the hopes of reconnecting with his brother. Meanwhile, he finds himself compelled to assert his relationship to the skate community.

  • Lena Naassana
    Director
  • Lena Naassana
    Writer
  • Lena Naassana
    Producer
  • Aly Ramy
    Producer
  • Omar Farid
    Key Cast
    "OMAR"
  • Mohamed Amin
    Key Cast
    "AMIN"
  • Marwan Mallawany
    Key Cast
    "MALLAWANY"
  • Jaden Kamel
    Key Cast
    "JADEN"
  • Aly Ramy
    Cinematography
  • Mena Assad
    Assistant Director
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    السماء الأولى
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 32 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 30, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Egypt
  • Country of Filming:
    Egypt
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.37
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Lena Naassana

Lena Naassana (b.1992) was born in New York to a multi-cultural and multi-lingual family of mixed Czech-Syrian descent. She was educated in Cairo, leaving to read English literature and Czech at Oxford University and later pursue an MA in Arabic and Comparative Literature at the School of Oriental Studies in London. After graduating, she returned to Cairo and began working as a documentary filmmaker and photographer with local and international NGOs.

In 2016, she moved to Prague to study documentary filmmaking, classic large-format photography and darkroom techniques. Today, she is based between Prague and her hometown Cairo, where she established The Laboratory, a darkroom and analog photography platform, Kino Cairo, a moving cinema club, and various other initiatives related to her passions for filmmaking and photography.

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Director Statement

I have always been obsessed with the coming-of-age moment and have a special love for films that bring it to life. After watching Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, I was struck by the extent to which the ‘fall’ of man is cyclical, inevitable, repeated in each and every human since the dawn of time.

Through my work with the independent music scene over the past three years, I befriended many young musicians, photographers and artists, several of whom live in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city - also a hub for underground arts and subcultures such as skating.

One of my closest friends was a photographer and skater. As I spent more time with him, I became enamored with the life that these young skaters lived. Long, eventless summers by the sea; skating by day, swimming in the Mediterranean at sunset, and then skating again at night as the weather became cooler. I remember the beautiful photos he took of them floating in the glittering sea. This friend later became my DP for the film.

Unlike other Gen-Z teens, most of these kids didn’t spend much time playing video games. They were out virtually all day and lived realtively wholesome lifestyles. Despite the stereotype of the rebellious skater-boy, most of these kids didn’t smoke or drink. They dressed stylishly, took videos of themselves doing new tricks, laughed a lot. Skating kept them grounded, gave them an identity.

I chose to set FIRST SKY in the late 2000s firstly to reflect the disconnect of these Alexandrian boys from the bustle of Egypt’s capital. I wanted the story to take place in a time when it was still possible to feel the endless boredom of a long summer holiday, which I, as a 90s kid, remember very well. Secondly, it was important for the distance between the protagonist, Omar, and his brother to feel significant. Today, technology makes it easy to communicate daily with friends and family all over the globe. Just 15 years ago, this would have been experienced entirely differently. Faced with this loss, the protagonist is forced confront his fears and insecurities, and take on the skate community all on his own.

Omar’s coming of age moment is experienced in solitude, like all of ours. He has a recurring dream that later materializes into a moving image he captures on his super 8 camera. This movement between the personal, subjective, imaginative world and the ‘objective’ outside world were very important to me.

FIRST SKY is ultimately about Omar’s awakening to his essence, which is what the coming-of-age moment is. The sky opens up, but it only the first step in a lifelong journey.