The Maid by Heidi Samaan
Egypt/U.S.A.
19 min | 2008
The Film
The Maid, a short fictional film, examines the moment in which we are forced to understand that other people are real in the same way that we are. Rasha is an Egyptian housemaid who is not very skilled at her job. When her suspicions about her employer are confirmed, Rasha has to rethink her perceptions of trust, duty, and her place within the family household.
The Filmmaker
Heidi Samaan was born and raised in Anaheim, California. She is of Egyptian-Lebanese-Armenian descent. She attended the University of California, San Diego, where she studied World Literature and Gender Studies. After graduation, Heidi was accepted to the Presidential Scholar Program at the American University in Cairo. There she worked in media relations as a writer, copy editor, and photographer. Additionally, she was a freelance journalist for the
Cairo Times Magazine, where her stories focused on gender-related issues in Egypt and the Middle East. In 2007, Heidi Samaan completed her master’s degree.
