A School Project by Egyptian Students Becomes the Best Publicity for the Country’s Tourism

A video showing some of Fayoum’s beautiful natural landscapes and countryside has recently surfaced online. Wonderfully shot to reveal some of the most sublime details of Fayoum, arguably one of Egypt’s most overlooked provinces, one would be forgiven to think it was an official #ThisIsEgypt video campaign, specifically designed to make you pack your bags and get on the first flight to Om El Donia. It was in fact entirely produced by two Egyptian IB (International Baccalaureate) students for a school project.

During their school programme's second ‘Creativity, Activity, and Service’ retreat, Maged Attalla and Seif Shawkat were inspired by the beauty of their surroundings in Fayoum and thought why not share it with the world? 

"We have been wanting to create a video to show the beauty of Egypt from our point of view as Egyptian youth. We found this trip as an opportunity to begin this project. It was our first time to travel to Fayoum, and the moment we reached there, we were amazed. We really started to see this video coming alive," Attalla says. "We were inspired by the #ThisIsEgypt videos and several other travel videos on the internet. Similar to #ThisIsEgypt, we hope to expose the true beauty of Egypt…from our point of view, instead of a commercial point of view. Through this video, we hope to share the beauty we see in Egypt with Egyptians and foreigners. I believe that we don’t have enough appreciation for this country. Regardless of the political or economic situation, we have a beautiful country, and that will never go away. So it is time to start to travel in Egypt and discover your country."

Attalla and Shawkat were particularly interested in showcasing a side of Egypt that locals often lose sight of in amid the traffic jams and the long queues and noise, they wanted to remind Egyptians of how uniquely beautiful this country is. 

"I've been discreetly aware of my lack of knowledge of my own country and the wonders it presents. I was missing out on breathtaking views and stunning experiences and decided to travel more within Egypt. Maged and I set out to film the trip and were thrilled by the photographs we saw and the stories we heard about the city. We were eager to set our plans in motion and capture a lot of Fayoum's beauty," Shawkat recounts. "On the technical side, editing a video with such a pace proved to be an arduous task. However, we enjoyed every second of the process. We stayed up late nights planning, editing, and colouring shots and I chose to flourish the edit with a few visual effects shots such as the CG drone shot. I chose to try out a distinctive editing style which, while proving relatively time consuming, fit the tone of the video. The song had to be edited down in length as we were short on time but in the end, when the final product came together, I felt satisfied that we achieved our goal and were able to portray the hidden beauty of the city of Fayoum."

And that they sure did! Check out Maged and Seif's video below. 

Fayoum from Maged Attalla on Vimeo.

Photo by Toufic Araman.