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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Concerts of praise and remembering
By Youssef Rakha
The late Mohamed Shebl -- diplomat, filmmaker, critic and radio anchor, and the Weekly's film critic -- delighted readers and audiences for years with his sharp intellect, unquenchable vitality and open, whole-hearted appetite for popular culture from the four corners of the earth. For years, his early-morning music programme set the day off with a bang for thousands of listeners eager to discover music they would never have heard, were it not for him. His films, few and far between though they were, earned him the status of an Egyptian Hitchcock, and he is said to have known more about world cinema than anyone, having collected the richest, rarest and most varied video library in Egypt. His involvement in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities brought him into contact with an impressive array of celebrities, who so trusted his acute critical judgements and iconoclastic sense of right that, a few months after his abrupt death in 1996, his numerous friends, colleagues and admirers founded a commemorative annual prize in his name, the Mohamed Shebl Film Award, to be given to the three "most innovative" films of the year-- one feature and two documentaries. Among those keen to honour Shebl were filmmakers Youssef Chahine and Youssri Nasrallah, film stars Youssra, Nadia Lutfi, Hind Rustum, Is'ad Younes, Simone, Samira Ahmed and Khaled El-Nabawi, critics Rafiq El-Sabban and Youssef Sherif Rizqallah, journalists Mohamed Salmawy, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo, Emad Adib, editor-in-chief of Al-Alam Al-Yom, Hala Halim from Al-Ahram Weekly, and some Shebl family members, including his aunt, artist and designer Re'aya El-Nimr.
Last Monday, this year's winners of the Mohamed Shebl Film Award were announced at the Hanager Theatre, in the Cairo Opera Complex. Salmawy, the secretary-general of the prize awarding committee, introduced the association's activities at length before briefly describing this year's winning feature film, Concerto Darb Sa'ada, by filmmaker Asmaa El-Bakri, which received the honorary LE3,000 prize, in recognition of her film's "subtle approach to the complex issue of East-West relations". El-Sabban, having revealed the jury's virtual consensus, praised the film as "a serious effort that goes against the current, despite the prevalence of poisonous winds". El-Bakri, for her part, complained that Egyptian cinema "has been dead for a while and is currently in the process of being buried", insisting that government efforts to resurrect the cinema are necessary for its survival. Film star Naglaa Fathi, who plays the lead opposite Salah El-Saadani in Concerto Darb Sa'ada, added that government efforts would not be sufficient on their own, but must be supplemented by the sustained effort of cinema people themselves.
Ahmed Atef, secretary of the committee and himself a struggling filmmaker, then introduced the documentary and short films, which received certificates of merit: Qahirat Enani by Adel Yehia, and Baba No‘l by Sameh Bahloul, respectively an exploration of Cairo through the eyes of painter Salah Enani, and an experimental exposition of three human rights, enacted by the figure of Father Christmas in unfamiliar surroundings. Atef praised their distinctiveness and subtlety of approach. The two young filmmakers then made brief comments, principally in praise of the opportunities that the Mohamed Shebl Award has made available to directors looking for a break.
