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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons IN THE course of the sixth round of the National Festival for Egyptian Cinema (21-27 June), 22 feature films, some of them are directorial debuts, will be screened at the Sheraton Cinema. Highlight debuts: Atef Hatata's Al-Abwab Al-Mughlaqa (Closed Doors), Mohamed Shaaban's Al-Sharaf (Honour), Karim Gamal's Hassan wa Aziza: Qadiat Amn Dawla (Hassan and Aziza: A State Security Case) and Ihab Radi's Fatah min Israel (A Girl from Israel). The quantity of films is perhaps less than one would like but the national festival, funded by the Cultural Development Fund since 1994, represents an attempt to bolster the local film industry and encourage competition with American films that have increasingly dominated cinema screens in recent years.
Zouzou Hamdi El-Hakim
In'am Abdel-Hakim, director of the festival, revealed earlier this week that the 22 films will be competing for a total of LE307,000 of prize money.
Among the festival's more interesting activities is a special tribute programme honouring five of Egyptian cinema's older devotees, actors and directors Zouzou Hamdi El-Hakim, Ahmed El-Hadari, Abdel-Hayy Adib, Noshi Iskandar and Kamal Attiya. The Cultural Development Fund is planning on publishing a commemorative book on each of these figures, outlining their biographies and expanding on their contributions to the industry.
