Asmaa

Amr Salama's 2011 Egyptian film follows a woman with HIV forced to hide her condition. Asmaa needs an operation but no hospital will take her; a television programme offers to let her tell her story and she refuses to show her face. The problem is not medical but entirely social. Salama based the screenplay on true stories he gathered over three years. The film is most honest in not making the woman's decision easy: the cost of disclosure is real and the film does not lighten it. Hend Sabry's performance carries it without slipping into appeals for pity. The story proceeds through flashbacks and some sections are over-explained. That it was one of the first films in its region to treat the subject matters as well. Who it's for: viewers interested in Arab cinema and films about social stigma. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a comforting resolution, or avoiding subjects of illness and exclusion.