Shortly after the death of his special uncles, Didier Frenkel descends into the basement of their shared home and finds a treasure: an ancient archive of animated films from Egypt starring Mish-Mish Effendi, the Arab equivalent of Mickey Mouse. His uncles kept this surprising chapter of their lives undercover. Didier begins restoring the films and unveils the work of the Arab world’s pioneers in this genre, the Frenkel brothers, who disappeared from Egyptian screens when the State of Israel was created.
Through their animated images, we uncover the history of the Frenkel family, marked by exile, a trauma being repeated today. “Bukra fil Mish-Mish” is a common Arabic expression referring to something which will never happen: “if pigs could fly”. At the same time, the extraordinary discovery of these films reveals a forgotten era gone forever, an Arab-Jewish golden age when the two communities could create things together. Not only has it disappeared, but it has also been erased from the pages of history.
