Fernando Frias’ “I’m No Longer Here” Wins Best Film at the Cairo Film Festival

Fernando Frias’ latest project has found success in Egypt…

The Mexican filmmaker’s I’m No Longer Here, a drama about immigration and identitywas the big winner at the Cairo Film Festival, which wrapped Friday.

Fernando Frias

I’m No Longer Here, which centers on a 17-year-old urban tribe leader forced by conflict with a cartel to leave Mexico for Queens, took home Cairo’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, for best film. 

It also earned acting honors for newcomer Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino, who plays Ulises Sampiero, leader of Los Terkos, who are known for their dance moves and extravagant hairstyles. In Queens, Ulises winds up either sparking hostility from other immigrants or being treated as a fashion curiosity. 

The film, which launched internationally in Cairo, is generating buzz after recently scoring the top prize at the Morelia Film Fest in Mexico.

The Cairo jury, headed by Oscar-winning U.S. writer-director Stephen Gaghan, awarded the Silver Pyramid to Ghost Tropic by Belgian helmer Bas Devos, in which a lady of Maghrebi origins meanders through multicultural Brussels one night after oversleeping on the subway.

Two films tied for the Bronze Pyramid for best first or second work: Chinese directorial duo Zhang Chong and Zhang Bo’s The Fourth Wall, a portrayal of two damaged people with a shared past who live in alternate fantasy worlds that eventually overlap, and Czech director Michal Hogenauer’s stylish psychological thriller, A Certain Kind of Silence.