Cairo Film Festival 2022 | Far From the Nile

A group of 12 African musicians from different countries along the Nile River come together in collaboration on a tour across America in Far From the Nile, the latest feature documentary from Egyptian-American filmmaker Sherief Elkatsha. The film has its world premiere at this year’s Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) as part of the Horizons of Arab Cinema section.

The musicians in the film hail from Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. They’re very different people, but they all share the Nile River and a passion for music. They’ve banded together as part of the Nile Project, an organization that connects people across all eleven Nile countries to raise awareness about water scarcity issues and promote collaboration on finding sustainable solutions for their river.

As Mina Girgis (producer and CEO of the Nile Project) explains in the film, music is a great way to bridge the gap between different people, cultures, and languages. He arranges for the group of musicians to meet, compose music together in which they mix musical styles and incorporate different instruments, and perform their cross-cultural musical collaboration in many regions. We join the band as they head on a 100-day multi-state tour in the United States, and for many of the musicians, it’s their first time in the U.S.

We follow the musicians as they perform in schools, concert halls, and community centres. Their excitement and passion for the music is palpable, but tensions also run high in the group as personalities clash and exhaustion from an extremely busy schedule sets in. Their days are jam-packed with travel, rehearsals, soundchecks, and performances. However, they always manage to work through their frustrations together, whether by adapting to meet other’s needs, confronting the issues head on in group meetings, or simply releasing it all through their music.

It’s also wonderful to see the band’s energy and excitement transfer to their audiences, who (with encouragement from the musicians) dance and clap and find their own meaning in the music. We sometimes see audience members approach the musicians afterward to express their enthusiasm and gratitude. At schools, the music brings students together in joyful celebration.

We get to know some of the musicians throughout the film, but others have significantly less screen time. There could be many reasons for this, but it would have been great to spend more time with every musician, to hear about each of their stories and connections to music — especially since the film is about bridging our differences and bringing together diverse people, cultures, and music.

One of the musicians with plenty of screen time who stands out the most is Kasiva Mutua, a drummer from Kenya. She’s a bright, empathetic musician who shares some of the struggles she’s faced as a female drummer living in a culture where traditionally, only men are allowed to drum. She expresses what a blessing it is to have found another female drummer in the Nile Project. It’s an affecting moment made all the more heartwarming when Kasiva then leads a group of women in the audience in a drumming session.

The film focuses almost exclusively on the band’s tour in America, capturing small moments over the course of 100 days. There is an overarching narrative that comes through about the band’s ability to overcome any challenges by working (and playing) together. We also get glimpses of those coordinating the tour and how they deal with the musicians’ conflicts. Occasionally, there’s an insert of a sequence either before or after the tour, either with the organizers or one of the musicians.

What the film never really touches on is the Nile Project itself and the eco-political issues facing the Nile River, which seems a bit strange given the organization aims to spread awareness about those issues. We get a brief explanation from Mina, but beyond that the film commits solely to the music and the musicians. While admittedly it would be a very different film if it focused on eco-political concerns rather than music as a cultural bridge, it nevertheless would have been helpful to viewers (and the Nile Project, presumably) if the film had offered some insight on the matter.

This is Elkatsha’s first feature in almost ten years. His last feature documentary, Cairo Drive, won Best Film from the Arab World (documentary section) at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2013. Far From the Nile is a thoughtful, entertaining and often heartwarming film.