Cinema Club: discovering Egyptian cinema through Hepta - The seven stages of love

The October edition of the Cinema Club focused on Egyptian cinema, featuring Hepta -The Seven Stages of Love, a 2016 film directed by Hadi El Bagoury and presented by film distributor Mohamed Ibrahim Farag.

The screening gave the audience the opportunity to discover one of the best-known romantic films in contemporary Egyptian cinema, a story that explores the nature of love, the complexity of human relationships, and how our feelings change over time.

Based on the bestselling novel by Egyptian author Mohamed Sadek, Hepta begins with the final public lecture of Professor Shokry Mokhtar, a social psychology specialist who sets out to answer one of life’s most enduring questions: how does love begin, and what happens when we fall in love? Through four love stories, he takes the audience on a journey through the different stages of a relationship.

The title comes from the Greek word hepta, meaning “seven,” and refers to the seven stages of love explored in the film. From the first encounter and the excitement of falling in love to promises, disillusionment, and the challenges that test a relationship, the story captures the many ways love can change and evolve.

The characters’ lives are shaped by hopes, desires, misunderstandings, moments of happiness, and disappointment. Their stories gradually come together, showing that while every relationship is different, many of the emotions and challenges we experience are universal. More than just a romantic film, Hepta encourages us to reflect on what love really means. How much do our expectations shape the way we see a relationship? How well can we truly know another person? And what happens when the idea of love we have imagined meets reality?

The screening was also an opportunity for Italian audiences to discover Egyptian cinema, which remains relatively unfamiliar to many viewers in Italy, despite its rich storytelling traditions and distinctive perspectives. One of the film’s greatest strengths is the way it combines the particularities of Egyptian society with emotions that everyone can relate to. While reflecting the cultural context in which it was made, Hepta explores experiences that cross borders: falling in love, learning to trust, fearing loss, managing expectations, and trying to build a lasting relationship.

Bringing Egyptian cinema to Italy means looking beyond stereotypes and discovering another culture through its stories, characters, and artistic expressions. It also means recognising how much we have in common, despite our different backgrounds: the same hopes, insecurities, vulnerabilities, and desire to love and be understood.