10 - 16 May 2001
Issue No.533
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 10 - 16 May 2001 Issue No.533 |
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To the Megalopolis...
The final part of French documentary film-maker Thierry Ragobert's trilogy on Alexandria, On the Trail of the Ancient Megalopolis, is anticipated with excitement even as producers (Gedeon Programmes and TV2) refuse to state when it will be completed. The filming is currently taking place in Alexandria, a city where "one is always certain to discover something," as the French archeologist Jean-Yves Empereur, the real-life star of the documentary, said earlier this week.
The trilogy depicts both archaeological digs and the worlds they point to (Ptolemaic, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, Islamic) with many scenes partially computer-simulated. The focus of On the Trail of the Ancient Megalopolis is Alexandria's largest excavation site, located at the heart of the present-day metropolis and incorporating both the modern Fouad Road and the ancient Canopic Way. Archaeologist Marie Jacquemain, currently working on the site, explained to AFP that the area has ruins dating from several different periods.
Ragobert's first two films -- The Seventh Wonder (1996) and Alexandria the Magnificent (1998) -- proved phenomenally successful in France and were sold to the BBC and the satellite channel Discovery. Together they won 17 awards.
...and beyond
On Tuesday the American Public Broadcasting Service started a three-episode documentary, "Islam: Empire of Faith," as part of the PBS "Empire Series." Combining live coverage with reenactments of historical events, the film depicts 1,000 years in the history of Islam, from Prophet Mohamed to Suleiman the Magnificent, and showcases Islamic art and architecture around the world. Narrated by Ben Kingsley and produced by Robert Gardner, its interviewees include Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, the authors of a companion volume, Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power, and Esin Atil, the former curator of Islamic Art at the Smithsonian Institute. Among the content advisors is formidable Moroccan scholar Mohamed Arkoun.
Rizkallah in Amman
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its foundation, the Baladuna Gallery in Amman will be holding large-scale exhibitions of the work of "major Arab artists" throughout 2001, Souad Esawi, the founder of the gallery, told the London-based daily Al-Hayat on Saturday.
Recently on show was the work of Egyptian artist Adli Rizkallah, whose exhibition included 209 small and 41 large watercolours.
Rizkallah's watercolours -- the genre for which he is still best known -- made their first appearances in the 1960s. They have been described as "implosions of colour" in which the prevalence of subtly intimated motifs is paralleled by a "dramatic" intensity of purpose.
An Arab medley
The Kuwait Theatre Festival concluded its fifth round last week. Opening with Huzouz Hanzala Al-Hanzali (The Fortunes of Hanzala Al-Hanzali), a recent "postmodern" offering from the National Al-Sharja Theatre, the event showcased work from across the Arab spectrum, emphasising new and experimental fare from the Gulf states, in which women have played an increasingly prominent role as dramatists if not as actresses.
Mohamed Al-Rumaihi, director of the festival and the secretary general of the Supreme Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (a division of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information), declared in his inaugural speech that in the last five years the object of the festival has been in part "to create that flesh-and-blood bond between age-old Arab theatres and a new generation of young Kuwaitis who have devoted themselves to theatre, building on the experience of the earliest Kuwaiti pioneers," in part to "dissolve the difficulties and obstacles that stand in the way of our theatrical ambitions." Honoured were the Egyptian actors Mahmoud Yassin and Mohamed Tawfiq.
Ideological meanderings
For almost a month the issue of normalisation with Israel has been bobbing on the surface of cultural life again, this time in the guise of a very specific question: should Arab fiction writers allow Israeli publishers to translate their works into Hebrew, and should they do so during the Intifada? Many contend that this is at bottom a pseudo issue, since the notion of Arabic literature in Hebrew translation is neither unprecedented nor new. From Tawfik El-Hakim to the 1989 Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Arabic novels have settled, however uncomfortably, into their Hebrew shells. And Israeli cultural authorities have a tradition of including Arab voices -- a source of contention that tends to centre around the outstanding Palestinian writer Emile Habibi who, in 1992, received a major literary award from the Israeli government. For many, however, notwithstanding peaceful initiatives of Israeli writers and cultural organisations, fostering ties with Israel at this juncture implies giving in to the current political situation, even endorsing Sharon's aggressions.
The issue exploded when an Israeli publishing house, Andalus, contacted a number of Egyptian fiction writers about buying copyrights to their work in Hebrew translation last month. Novelist Sonaalla Ibrahim told AFP Moroccan critic Mohamed Berrada had approached him about the offer.
"I rejected the offer on principle," Ibrahim said, adding provocatively: "Secondly, translation into Hebrew would not constitute any addition to my achievement; it is a dead language."
Others, like Youssef El-Qa'id and Youssef Abu Rayya further emphasised Ibrahim's position stating that they cannot endorse the publication of their work in Israel while Israel continues to occupy Arab land. Others still, notably Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid, insisted on their ideological position while allowing the translations to take place through current owners of their translation copyrights. But the issue acquired yet another dimension when some writers expressed concern about their books being translated without their permission. In subsequent meetings and debates Berrada has been cast in the role of the project's spokesman.
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