The Mother of Light and Her Daughters

Overview

The film is set during the annual fasting dedicated to the Virgin Mary. While depicting the habits and customs related to this fasting in her familiar surrounding, the director asks her female Coptic relatives to tell their stories. Mothers, sisters, daughters and nieces out of four generations give an account which illuminates the changes which occurred in Egyptian society regarding education and emancipation and the role religion is assigned to in that context. The women's traditional religiosity that formed rather a subtext of their daily life starts to become institutionalized to the extent that life of the younger women became entirely centered on the church and its multiple activities. The film touches on the one hand on the rich mythological Coptic heritages which are rooted among others in Old Egyptian customs and beliefs and tackles on the other gender inequalities perpetuated by the Coptic church and backed by Egyptian society in general.