Film and media blog

"Weekend Warriors" EstDoc's First Prize and Audience Award

Our Audiovisual Media student Ahmed Fouad Ragab's film "Weekend Warriors" received the First Prize and Audience Award at EstDoc, a not-for-profit documentary film festival and competition held in Toronto, featuring unheard stories about the Baltic nation of Estonia.

Still frame from Weekend Warriors


How did you happen to enter the competition?

I came across the competition by total coincidence, and I can not actually remember the first contact, but somehow I was on EstDoc's mailing list and received some news about the competition one day before the deadline, and I was lucky enough to apply on time.

What's the film about?

"Weekend Warriors" is a short documentary following a young woman of Russian-Estonian identity, and tries to briefly explore and reflect on the idea of bi-ethnicity and what it actually means, while taking a peak on her life in Narva as a volunteer in the Estonian Defence League.

What does this prize mean to you?

The film was screened publicly in our own Best of BFM, then in Tartu Student Days where it won the jury prize, then in EstDocs in Toronto, where it won both First Prize and Audience Award. Those prizes do mean a lot as this documentary is the first I ever direct, and it was during my first semester studying at BFM. So it gives me a lot of confidence in myself as a director, and in my team whom we share a lot of trust in each other and are working together again on our second short documentary at the moment.

What are your next plans and goals?

Currently, I am working on my second short documentary, which again has to do with minorities in Estonia, whilst preparing for my first short fiction for next semester, which is planned to have a dual Estonian-Egyptian vibe. I hope by next year I get to direct my thesis project and figure out what line of film studies suits me best for my MAs.