Egyptian filmmaker Muhammad Mustapha debuted his documentary Big Boys Don’t Cry
in the Feature Documentary Competition at the El Gouna Film Festival, exploring how Cairo bodybuilders and nightclub bouncers perform masculinity.
Egyptian filmmaker Muhammad Mustapha debuted his documentary Big Boys Don’t Cry
in the Feature Documentary Competition at the El Gouna Film Festival, exploring how Cairo bodybuilders and nightclub bouncers perform masculinity. Mustapha spent time looking at Cairo’s hyper-masculine culture. Rather than approaching the project as an exposé of behavior he deemed wrong, the filmmaker treated it as an examination of how men experience masculinity across different environments.
Mustapha recognized how male presentation alters depending on context.
Collaborative Production and the Bond With Abdallah
The Cairo bodybuilders and bouncers featured in the film acted as active collaborators throughout the production process. Mustapha rejects the notion that documentary filmmaking remains purely observational, noting that the presence of a camera alters the environment.
Mustapha spent a year building a relationship with Abdallah before filming commenced. Although the director initially conceived the project as an intellectual, theme-driven study on masculine identity, he realized during the editing room phase that their bond formed the true center of the movie.
🎬 Catch #DFMIAlumni | BIG BOYS DON’T CRY by Muhammad Mustapha @ElGounaFilmA camera enters the hypermasculine world of bodybuilders and bouncers in Cairo. Sculpted bodies perform strength and control, concealing fragility beneath carefully built armors.#GFF pic.twitter.com/HRQ2pGgp2g
I thought there was no emotional arc in the film. It was very theme-driven, and it was very intellectual… I discovered that their friendship had become its emotional throughline.
Muhammad Mustapha, Director
That trust took time to establish.
Exclusion of Women and Emotional Suppression
Introducing female participants into that dynamic, he believes, would fundamentally change the equation. The documentary deliberately excludes women to maintain an exclusively male environment, which Mustapha likens to peering inside a gym locker room.
Mustapha argues that restrictions placed on men’s emotional ranges transcend borders. He points to a widespread societal limitation that restricts men to a single acceptable outward feeling.
The only emotion men are allowed to express is anger. Imagine how distorted the male psyche is because of all this suppression of emotions.
Muhammad Mustapha, Director
These ideas connect back to his initial fascination with hyper-masculine performance despite identifying as a feminist and an intellectual.
International Funds Support Big Boys Don't Cry Premiere
Mustapha previously brought the work to CineGouna—the festival’s industry arm—back in 2020. Bringing Big Boys Don’t Cry
to the El Gouna Film Festival marks a milestone for a project that has spent roughly three years in development.
The documentary secured financial backing from international and regional supporters, including the Doha Film Institute, the Red Sea Film Fund, and Germany’s Robert Bosch Foundation, following its presentation at CineGouna.
Mustapha described the screening as a full circle moment when reflecting on the journey to its world premiere competition slot.
