Private Project

The boy who cried Fish!

Miranda's life falls into pieces when her son, Adam, wouldn’t take off her blue bra.
After accidentally watching a violent incident on Television, Adam carries the burden of what he saw to face a similar situation.
As a single mother of a child on the spectrum, Miranda finds a way of coping when she understands how the personal intertwines with the universal.

  • Dalia Musaad
    Director
    The Square (Oscar Nominated), The Trials of Spring
  • Dalia Musaad
    Writer
    The Square (Oscar Nominated), The Trials of Spring
  • Anabelle Munro
    Producer
    White Cut, Finding Alice
  • Breeda Wool
    Key Cast
    UnReal, The Lambing Season
  • Jacob Hopkins
    Key Cast
    True Blood, Inside out, The Goldbergs, The Amazing World of Gumball,
  • Gini Reticker
    Executive Producers
    Hot girls wanted, Pray the devil back to hell, The Trials of Spring
  • Abigail Disney
    Executive Producers
    The Armor of Light, The invisible war, The queen of Versailles, Hot girls wanted,
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 15, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    22,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Dances with Films
    Los Angeles
    United States
    June 5, 2016
    World Premiere
    Grand Jury Award SHORTS - Honorable Mention
  • Female Eye Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    June 16, 2016
    Jury Award: BEST DEBUT FILMMAKER
Director Biography - Dalia Musaad

Dalia Musaad was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. She came from a computer science background and it wasn’t until she was 23 that she started pursuing her passion for filmmaking. In 2008, she quit her job and started making low budget films at the Jesuit Cairo Cinema school. She was applauded for her personal, multi-layered stories and surreal characters. Afterwards she joined the leading film industry in Egypt as editor and colorist in major film and TV productions.

In 2011, Dalia moved to Los Angeles, California to continue her film directing studies at UCLA extension and graduated with honors. In 2013 she started writing and developing her short film “The boy who cried Fish”. She launched a successful Kickstarter campaign and went into production. She also joined director Jehane Noujaim in OSCAR® Nominee “The Square” as an Associate Editor. Being multi-lingual and an activist she was the perfect candidate for this job.

In 2014, Dalia moved to New York and started the post-production process for “The boy who cried Fish”. She also started working with Emmy Award winning Gini Reticker, Abigail Disney and Jenny Golden on the documentary “Trials of Spring” as a Production Consultant and Associate Editor. The film explores the role of women in the Egyptian revolution and was premiered in the Human Rights Watch film festival in New York. Dalia also shot and directed a short documentary as part of "The Trials of Spring" short series for the New York Times.

Her short debut “The boy who cried Fish” is premiering at Dances with Films festival, and has won the IndieFest award of Excellence for Best Woman Filmmaker, Grand Jury award: Honorable mention at Dances with Films and Best Debut Filmmaker at Female Eye Film Festival.

Dalia is now lead editor on the feature documentary “Full circle” directed by Sean Lennon and produced by Yoko Ono, to be released early 2017.
She’s also writing her first feature film, which she plans to get in production mid 2017.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I made this film a year after I moved from Cairo, Egypt to Los Angeles, California with one question in my mind: 'How can I make sense of it all?'

The situation in Egypt was starting to get shaky after the military crackdown on the young revolution. I had to leave the country, to look for my freedom elsewhere, far away from home.
But I still remember how it felt when I was standing in Tahrir Square amidst the roaring crowds. It was that moment of liberation, when everything felt so right, and my voice was finally heard.

But then this moment of perfection faded away, and I watched my beautiful dream get stabbed in the back. I witnessed the injustices and the violence of the crackdown as it was eating away what was once a hopeful voice calling for change. I didn’t know what to do or how to put an end to this violence and that’s why I had to make this film...

I saw a part of me inside Adam, a child with autism struggling with sensory overload on daily basis, unexplained bursts of emotional tantrums due to his heightened sensitivity. And I could see another part of me in his single mother trying to understand her son's struggles not knowing always what the right thing to do is.

It is an unlikely correlation between Autism and the Egyptian revolution, but in this liminality between two different worlds and two distant places is where I found solace and it was my way of expressing how I felt at that time.

Thank you for considering my film “The boy who cried Fish!”