The Virgin, the Copts and Me

Namir is Egyptian, a Copt, and now lives in France.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] When there is a family reunion, he buys an old video cassette recorded many years earlier at a religious holiday in his home village, when his mother said she had had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[1][2][3][6][7] Namir realizes he has in his hands a very interesting subject for a documentary: he convinces his producer that it is a good idea and sets off on a journey that takes him back to his origins and puts his profession as a director to the test.[1][2][3][4][5][7] However, he has not reckoned with his mother, the real protagonist of the story.[1][2][3][7][8] Eventually, in her hometown, they recreate an apparition with the help of the other villagers.[1][2][7]

• Shown at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival,[1] the Festival Cinema Africano,[2] the 2012 EBS International Documentary Festival,[3] the 2012 Kraków Film Festival[5] and at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2][3][5][7] It will be shown at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival.[4][9]
• Variety drew a parallel between the Coptic minority in Egypt and the Egyptian minority in France, and they commended the editing.[10] For Slant Magazine, the staged apparition brings the film to a "satisfying climax".[7] The Huffington Post commended the director's decision to keep the footage filmed in 2010, prior to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.[9] For America, the "Coptic population" is "held together by a shared sense of self-abnegation and unwavering faith" and it is "faith that remains a rallying force for the Copts on the screen" despite their "victimized status as a religious minority".[11]

• The Virgin, the Copts and Me at IMDb 
• Namir Abdel Messeeh's official blog