Adding another feather to its cap, quite literally, is the Egyptian film ‘Feathers’, which has bagged the prestigious Best Arab Narrative Film at the closing ceremony of the El Gouna Film Festival.

The film, directed by Egyptian director Omar El-Zohairy, on Friday, took home the award which also won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week, amidst all the controversies it faced at the event and on social media.

Feathers is a story about a mother who dedicates her life to her husband and children. The dark comedy genre showcases the mother’s struggles after her domineering husband is turned into a chicken in a magic trick gone wrong.

The film caused a stir during the festival on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, as some said the film portrayed Egypt in an unfairly negative light. Many Egyptian filmmakers and actors, including Sherif Mounir, Ahmed Rizk and Ashraf Abdel Baqi, left the screening of the film last week due to the same reason.

The fifth edition of the film festival included 75 international and regional feature narratives, short films, and documentaries from 44 countries, with eight worlds and two international premieres.

Sixteen films competed in the feature narrative category, 10 in the documentary competition and 23 in the segment of the short film. The top prizes in the three main categories of Feature Narrative, Documentary and Short Film was won by Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s film ‘The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,’ ‘Life of Ivanna’ by Renato Borrayo Serrano, and ‘Katia’ from Russian director Andrey Natotcinskiy.

The Best Arab Documentary film went to the Egyptian directorial Ali El Arabi’s ‘Captains of Za’atari,’ while director Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon” won the inaugural El Gouna Green Star Award for raising awareness on environmental issues and the Fipresci award for Best Debut Film.