SHALL I COMPARE YOU TO A SUMMER’S DAY?

Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? is a contemporary queer musical taking Arab folktales as its formal reference and Egyptian pop music as its primary sonic material. It is based on the filmmaker’s personal love diary and told in the form of a “One Thousand and One Nights” tale, where stories playfully unfold through conversations between Shahrazad, a protagonist who never comes into view and ghosts of former lovers.

Mohammad Shawky Hassan is an Egyptian filmmaker and video artist living and working in Berlin since 2019. His last film And on a Different Note premiered at the Berlinale – Forum Expanded and was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as part of its permanent collection.

Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? (2022), digital video, 66 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Amerikafilm.

Part of a screening program of works by LGBTI+ artists and of queer creations.

KIRIK’s 2023/24 programs are supported by the SAHA Sustainability Fund.