Already seen “Bros” and “Fire Island?” Waiting for what’s next? Well, the queer Egyptian film from director Mohammad Shawky Hassan, “Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day,” has already scored acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival, and this month it hits New York’s LGBTQ+ film festival, NewFest. Hassan’s musical love story is set to a soundtrack of Egyptian pop and based on his own diary, Shakespeare’s sonnets and folktales from Scheherazade’s “One Thousand and One Nights,” as the spirits of former lovers and Scheherazade sing about polyamory and Grindr and other very queer topics. And perhaps not surprisingly, it’s already being condemned by Egyptian authorities, which means we feel a strong responsibility to spread the word and buy tickets to this song-filled sexual adventure. Keep it on your radar when it pops up at queer film festival or arthouse cinema near you.
