The Aquarium

The Aquarium - Berlin Film Festival /Poster & Booklet 

Back in 2008, we were commissioned to design the original poster and booklet for The Aquarium (Genenet al Asmak) at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film, directed by Yousry Nasrallah, was an intimate drift through Cairo’s shadowed corners—a city of unsaid things and silent stares. We knew the visuals couldn’t just sell a film. They had to hold a mirror.

Our approach was a departure from the safe and expected. We stripped the city down to emotional silhouettes, dreamlike fragments, and the quiet weight of two lives orbiting each other without ever meeting. At the time, it was considered a risk. Today, it stands as one of our earliest declarations: that design isn’t decoration—it’s storytelling.
We’re proud to bring this piece back into the light as part of ZANAD’s archive, where it belongs—with the bold, the quiet, and the beautifully unresolved.