‘OPENING AFLAM FILM FESTIVAL’

Factory Girl tells the story of Hiyam, a young factory worker, who lives in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood, along with her fellow workers. She has clearly fallen under the spell of Salah, the factory's new supervisor, who has expressed his admiration for her. She believes love can transcend the class differences between them. However, when a pregnancy test is discovered in the factory premises, her immediate family and close friends accuse her of having sinned. Hiyam decides not to defend herself and pays an enormous price in a society that fails to accept independent women.

Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Khan is an undisputed legend of Arab cinema. Factory Girl is the latest of Khan's over 20 feature films, including The Street Player (1983), Kharag wa lam Ya'ud (1984), The Wife of an Important Man (1987), Supermarket (1990) and, more recently, Downtown Girls (2006) and In the Heliopolis Flat (2007).