Permissible Dreams traces the life of Oum Said, a woman farmer living in a small town on the Suez Canal. Although she does not read or write, the woman in question is her family’s economist, doctor, and the planner of its future, as she dreams “to the limits of her possibilities”. This film, capturing a woman’s struggles with societal and gender inequality, was part of the German-produced series As Women See It.
“All I ask of the image is not to create an opacity between the character and what she wants to say. There is a degree of pain that cannot be transmitted. We only have a reflection of his pain. But we touch a degree of dignity, pride and wisdom. You must know how to reveal reality with its dark and luminous sides, without hiding an admiration for the total commitment of the beings whose lives meet History.”
Arabic spoken, English subtitles
