Muhammed Hamdy’s “Perfumed with Mint” Lands on AFLAMUNA for Limited Free Access

Muhammed Hamdy’s Perfumed with Mint is now available for a free-to-watch, 14-day global release on the non-profit platform, AFLAMUNA. Handy’s feature directorial debut is available from 2nd to 16th July, 2026. The film follows Bahaa, a lovesick physician, and his old friend Mahdy as they try to escape the ghosts of their past, running from one abandoned house to another while being relentlessly chased by shadows.

Perfumed with Mint, a co-production between Egypt, France, Tunisia and Qatar, and has screened at several prestigious international film festivals, primarily competing for major debut feature and independent cinema prizes. Although it has collected high-profile nominations globally, its major competitive wins come from its festival run and indie circuits. In 2024, it had its world premiere in the 39th International Critics’ Week (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) section, where it was nominated for the prestigious Lion of the Future (Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film). At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2024, the film celebrated its North American premiere under the avant-garde Wavelengths program.

At the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, it was specially selected and screened in the elite Best of Festivals lineup. At the Marrakech International Film Festival, it featured prominently in the official Films en compétition track. In 2025, it travelled to the Hong Kong International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Firebird Award in the Young Cinema Competition (World) category. Also, it screened at the Helsinki International Film Festival, where it showed at the contemporary Next Level/Love & Anarchy showcases. During its festival run, it won the Best Experimental Feature Film at the Madrid International Independent Film Festival (FICIMAD). Although Perfumed with Mint is Hamdy’s feature directorial debut, he had previously won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for his work on the acclaimed 2013 documentary The Square. 

The free-to-watch, 14-day global release of Perfumed with Mint on AFLAMUNA is facilitated through its Coup de Cœur guest curation initiative. The Coup de Cœur guest curation initiative is a recurring program where independent Arab film platforms and arts organizations invite regional filmmakers, critics, and writers to share a standout film that they personally love. For July, Egyptian writer, programmer, and NAAS Research Fellow Mahammad Hoogla-Kalfat selected the film as his featured choice for July 2026. In this video, the writer talks about his connection to the film, the reason behind his selection, and what gives it a distinctive cinematic significance.

The Coup de Cœur is a monthly curation that invites cinema lovers to pick an Arab independent film they admire and watch it on the free platform. AFLAMUNAonline is an initiative by AFLAMUNA and AFLAMUNA France, a non-profit platform for discovering free-to-watch independent Arab films. Weekly and monthly, it seeks out cult favorites, contemporary works, and hidden gems from across the Arab region. Many of these films rarely leave festival screens or cultural spaces. Here, they are online for everyone to discover, for free. Each film is available to watch for 14 days only. The platform is supported by regional arts bodies like the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), AFLAMUNA funds these free windows by offsetting the filmmakers’ distribution costs through non-profit cultural grants rather than commercial ad revenue or user monetization.

This streaming model democratizes access to independent African and Arab cinema, bypassing traditional paywalls and geo-blocks to reach viewers directly. It allows for cultural, avant-garde storytelling to reach local audiences without conforming to commercial streaming demands, with the deal brokered through institutional, grant-funded curatorial partnerships rather than standard commercial distribution. For African filmmakers, the approach allows them to retain digital rights, leverage non-profit, cultural, and curatorial partnerships for distribution, and build grassroots audiences through free, accessible screenings.