Cooking a peaceful plotline

Among the dishes he learned to make were stir-fried shredded potatoes and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, two everyday staples on many Chinese family tables.

After spending two to three weeks adapting to life in China during the shoot, Sherif says he is thrilled to be part of the film, which he describes as "a truly powerful and excellent work".

He also clearly understands the film's message: War is not simply a conflict between countries; it also inflicts suffering on innocent people. "In war, it is children and civilians who suffer the most," he concludes.

That message lies at the heart of director Wen Muye's latest work. Known for his close observation of realistic themes, as seen in previous hits Dying to Survive (2018) and Nice View (2022), Wen has turned his lens to a broader subject: the relationship between food and people in an environment shaped by war, killing, and imprisonment.

The idea dates back to 2017, when Wen was working on post-production for Dying to Survive. He came across news reports about several Chinese people running restaurants in the Middle East. "When war broke out, they were still operating their restaurants. It immediately struck me," he recalls.

"War is an abnormal state — the world becomes deeply unnatural, and people are changed by it in equally unnatural ways. But food is profoundly ordinary. No matter which side of the conflict you're on, you have to eat," Wen says, explaining his inspiration.

That realization eventually became one of the film's central themes: The world may be chaotic, but we still long to eat properly in peace. For Wen, the idea also carries a deeply personal resonance, rooted in his mother's calls. No matter what they talk about, he says, her final reminder is often the same: Take good care of yourself amid the demands of work, and remember to eat well, regularly and on time.

The film brings that idea to life through more than 40 dishes, many of which carry symbolic meanings, expressing a yearning for peace or reflecting the characters' grim circumstances.

Food also becomes a bridge — not just between cuisines, but between filmmakers from China and Egypt. With Egypt's well-established film and television industry, the Chinese director chose most of the Arabic-speaking cast from the country, creating an opportunity for creative collaboration between talents from both sides.