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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Focus Interview Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Post-festive props
Khairiya El-BishlawiCairo's Fifth National Festival for Egyptian Cinema (NFEC), which began on 31 July and will continue until 8 August, is currently in full swing with the screening of 18 feature films produced between 1998 and 1999, alongside 54 documentary, short and animated films. In presenting such a large selection of productions side by side the festival offers a valuable service to the public, providing it with an overview of the current state of domestic cinema. And in order to reach the widest possible audience, the festival's screenings are free of charge, thus providing younger generations not only with the opportunity of attending the films but also of expressing their opinions about the films during the seminars which follow every screening.
A quick glance at the feature films presented in the festival is enough, perhaps, to reveal the level of achievement which hovers somewhere between the poor and the mediocre. Good films, which are technically satisfactory and solidly structured, are thin on the ground, leaving commercial, consumer-oriented productions to form the main bulk of the entire cinematic production. This situation is all the sadder considering that the total annual production in recent years has not exceeded 20 films -- a sorry state of affairs given that it was not really all that long ago that the industry was churning out films by the hundred.
This year's festival includes a growing number of joint productions -- Asmaa El-Bakri's Concerto Darb Saada (The Concerto of Darb Saada) and Radwan El-Kashef's Araq Al-Balah (Date Wine) are both Franco-Egyptian productions, while Mohamed Kamel El-Qalioubi's Ahlam Masrouqa (Stolen Dreams), Sherif Arafa's Edhak Al-Soura Tetla Helwa (Smile for the Camera), Sherif Yehia's Fatat Al-Mafia (The Mafiosa) and Amr Bayoumi's Al-Gisr (The Bridge) are all co-produced by the Radio and Television Union.
Among the films presented in this year's festival is Said Hamed's hit Saidi Fil-Gamea Al-Amrikiya (An Upper Egyptian at the American University), which grossed the biggest box-office returns in the history of Egyptian cinema. And despite having remained in cinemas throughout the country for an entire year following its release, the film was still the main attraction to the festival-going public, some of whom had to stand through the screening at the Cairo Opera House's Small Hall. The seminar devoted to the film was likewise over-crowded with a great many keen to discuss the phenomenon of Mohamed Heneidi's sky-rocketing stardom both on stage and screen.
Adel Imam, another great draw at the festival, starred in two films by Nader Galal: Al-Wad Mahrous Beta Al-Wazir (Mahrous, the Minister's Boy) and Ressala Ila Al-Wali (Message to the Vali). Although Adel Imam reigned unchallenged over Egyptian audiences for over a decade, his two most recent films performed disappointingly at the box-office, and his greatest successes of late have all been in the theatre.
This fact notwithstanding, the eternal rivalry between Imam and Nadia El-Guindi dictated that she, too, should present two films at the festival, namely Nader Galal's Tamania wa Arbein Saa fi Esra'il (48 Hours in Israel) and Ali Abdel-Khaleq's Al-Emberatora (The Empress). Both are fast-paced action thrillers focusing around El-Guindi's screen persona of the femme fatale possessed of unsurpassed powers of seduction and conspiracy.
Although the public is aware of the rivalry between Imam and El-Guindi, it flocks to their films for the same reason -- escapist entertainment. It is, however, high time for Adel Imam and Nadia El-Guindi, both of whom are approaching 60, to consider portraying characters more suited to their age. We can only hope that they will effect this career shift with good grace. To do otherwise would simply alienate their audiences. Imam's shelf life as the hero/thug is obviously coming to an end, while Nadia El-Guindi is in great need of a cinematic character not entirely based on her cleavage.
To secure a viable and continuing place in the Egyptian film industry has, over the past decade, become no mean feat. If one follows the NFEC closely, year in, year out, one begins to understand the precarious existence of film makers. They tread a long and winding road simply to make their first film. Yet once this is achieved, and despite the possible success of their debut, they have to struggle for a few more years before they can complete a second film -- if at all.
Such was the case with Magdi Ahmed Ali who, despite the success of Ya Donia Ya Gharami (Life...My Passion) both commercially and critically in 1995, was able to release his second film Al-Batal (The Hero) only three years later, and with difficulty. A similar situation was encountered by former documentary filmmaker Asmaa El-Bakri whose feature film Concerto Darb Saada comes years after her debut feature Shahhatoun wa Nobala (Noble Beggars).
Ali El-Ghazouli's Silence Talks, 1999
Nor is the situation very different for documentary filmmakers. In fact several documentary filmmakers who have presented perfectly respectable debut works have literally disappeared while those who remain despair of the medium and must now content themselves with directing television commercials and music videos. Nor did the documentary, short and animated films screened during the festival hold out a great deal of promise. The majority were graduation projects produced by the Cinema Institute, or by the National Cinema Centre, testifying to a severe dearth in production resources and in creative originality.
This year's collection of feature films presents an assortment of heroes who, despite their difference in nature, all share a common standard -- they are uniformly ludicrous. A good example is Anwar El-Qawadri's Gamal Abdel-Nasser. This lukewarm portrayal of Egypt's towering national hero is inconsistent with the fiery, passionate and charismatic nature of the man in question. Pivotal in shaping Egypt's modern history, Nasser's is a character so ubiquitous that audiences impatiently awaited the film's release. They were sorely disappointed.
Another hero whom the public found unpalatable was Harfoush Ben Barqouq, the character played by Adel Imam in Nader Galal's Ressala Ila Al-Wali (Message to the Vali). Instead of presenting a courageous hero landing from the distant past in modern times to right all wrongs, the character played by Imam is a grotesque, diluted version of the intended original. In Ismail Gamal's Amwag Al-Ghadab (Waves of Wrath) we watch a wrestling champion (played by El-Shahhat Mabrouk) pitting himself against corruption. Although the film clearly means to inspire respect for the character's noble aspirations, the end result is a commercial and mediocre film.
Ekhtefa Gaafar Al-Masri (The Disappearance of Gaafar Al-Masri), directed by Adel El-Assar, presents the struggle between a corrupt billionaire (played by Nour El-Sherif) and the devil (Hussein Fahmi). Unsurprisingly, the former defeats the latter and leads an honest and noble life.
In Concerto Darb Saada, Salah El-Saadani plays Azzouz, a poor and simple Egyptian man who, through art, discovers a whole new dimension to life. Such an experience is afforded him through the mediation of Sonia, an Egyptian woman educated in France who returns to Cairo after 18 years of absence. Her presence in Azzouz's life drives him to rebel against his former lifestyle and aspire to join Sonia and what she has come to represent.
Magdi Ahmed Ali's Al-Batal (The Hero), set in Egypt of the 1920s, sees Ahmed Zaki playing a simple craftsman who dreams of glory and public service. Although never obviously stated, the film's characterisation and storyline seem to insinuate a parallel between Zaki's character and the leader of the 1919 nationalist revolution Saad Zaghloul.
An extremely naive film in the competition is Ismail Gamal's Emberatoreyat Al-Sharr (Empire of Evil). In yet another redemption plot, a powerful arms dealer decides it is time he switched careers when a number of children are killed at the hands of the terrorists whom he supplies. In the seminar following this film, Gamal stated that he relies mainly on a provincial audiences whose cinematic interests are limited to action, violence and belly-dancing. With this in mind, he is always keen on inserting at least one belly-dancing tableau, and is the man behind the emergence of a new potential belly-dancing star, Safwa, whom he presented for the first time in his Amwag Al-Ghadab (Waves of Wrath).
Pizza Pizza, by Mazen El-Gabali, exposes the problems faced by younger generations seeking jobs in the new touristic areas. Unfortunately, this potentially interesting theme is treated with the very traditional cinematic tools it tries to avoid. The locations chosen for the action and the film's cast dictate the seemingly inevitable features associated with actors like Jala Fahmi and Ashraf Abdel-Baqi on the beach.
Finally, to turn to the best of this year's crop one must make mention of Mohamed Kamel El-Qalioubi's Ahlam Masrouqa (Stolen Dreams). The film's most significant achievement is its innovative portrayal of terrorism, dealing with the social roots of the phenomenon rather than concentrating on the more violent aspect of it. During the seminar following the film, the director discussed the issue of television censorship, stating that 15 minutes had been cut from his film by the TV censor (the film being a TV production) without his knowledge or approval. The public expressed its dissatisfaction, demanding that the 15 minutes be returned and requesting the TV censorship department to adopt a less heavy-handed approach and allow directors the freedom they deserve as creative artists.
