A work steeped in memory and emotional resonance, Mohamed Siam’s My Father’s Scent [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
interview : Mohamed Siam
fiche film] has quickly passed through various festivals, garnering acclaim in Europe and the Arab world. According to Cineuropa’s jurors Pilar Campos, Patricio Jeretic and Maroussia Picq, who handed the movie the Cineuropa Award at the latest edition of Brussels’ Cinemamed, where it also won the Grand Prize (see the news), it “managed to capture, with authenticity, tenderness and humour, the intimate and raw exchange between two protagonists at their wits' end”. Siam reflects on the origins of this intimate story, his stylistic approach and the meaning of its growing international recognition.

Cineuropa: What inspired you to tell this story?
Mohamed Siam: The inspiration for My Father’s Scent came after my father passed away when I was very young. The only thing I found among his belongings was an empty bottle of cologne. When I smelled it, I felt as though I had unlocked a doorway to memory — it was through that simple, intimate moment that the idea for the film was born. The story grew from my own recollections, shaped by the traces our loved ones leave behind. My Father’s Scent was born from an exploration of memory, absence, and the fragile thread that ties fathers and sons together. I wanted to capture that universal moment when a child begins to see their parent not as an authority figure, but as a complex, vulnerable human being.

Your approach to directing this film is very distinctive. How did you work on the style and deal with the constraints of the production?
My approach was to ground the film in one location, or at least make it feel as if everything unfolds within the same, familiar space. I wanted the audience to grow attached to each setting, street corner and, of course, to the car, to feel that sense of intimacy and familiarity as the story takes turns.

My stylistic intention was to keep the camera mostly still, allowing the emotional distance between the father and son to speak for itself. Movement occurs only when the camera advances or retreats through the corridor that physically and symbolically separates their two worlds and rooms. The biggest challenge was completing the shoot in just two weeks, under both time and budget constraints. But those limitations ultimately strengthened the film’s focus and energy.

What does the international recognition mean to you at this stage of the film’s journey?
We’ve been very fortunate with the reception — winning a prize at El Gouna, two awards at Cinemamed and Best Artistic Contribution at the Fajr International Film Festival, all in less than a month. Every screening so far, whether in Europe or in the Arab world, has been sold out. Yet for me, success isn’t measured in numbers; it’s about what stays with the audience afterwards. If someone walks away thinking about the film the next day or humming the soundtrack, or shares how it touched them with someone close to them, then the movie has done what I’d hoped: to be an experience that not only passes through you, but also leaves something behind.

Receiving two awards at Cinemamed reaffirms that our regional stories can resonate beyond borders, that cinema can still be both personal and universal. I hope audiences see a reflection of their own families, losses and reconciliations in My Father’s Scent.