MENEMSHA FILMS

In a basement near Paris a treasure-trove of Egyptian animated films has been found. The films show the work of the Arab world’s pioneers in this genre, the Frenkel brothers: three exceptional young film-makers, creators of Mish-Mish Effendi, the Mickey Mouse of the entire region, which disappeared from Egyptian screens when the State of Israel was created.

Through their animated images, we uncover the history of the Frenkel family, marked by exile, a trauma being repeated today.
“Bukra fil Mish-Mish” is a common Arabic expression referring to something which will never happen: “if pigs could fly”. At the same time the extraordinary discovery of these films reveals a forgotten era gone forever, an Arab-Jewish golden age when the two communities could create things together. Not only has it disappeared, it has been erased from the pages of history.