15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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On film
Of all my screenplays, Raya wa Sakina and Futuwwat Al-Husseiniya remain the closest to my heart. They were, I think, composed with precision and complexity, and they have an element of suspense to them that other screenplays of mine might lack; needless to say, I worked very hard to complete them both.
In each case, the filmmaker in question -- Salah Abu Seif and Niazi Mustafa, respectively --was very supportive and encouraging.
Yet, due to the strangeness of the subject matter, I was left entirely to myself when it came to writing the screenplays. Neither director nor producer nor any of the lead actors interfered with what I was doing. And I happen to know that, had these been love stories, for example, the process would not have been free of intervention. People would have introduced modifications and played around with what I wrote. But fortunately the themes of these two films, especially the landmark Raya wa Sakina, were completely new to the Egyptian screen.
As a censor, on the other hand, I not only examined the material closely but I persuaded my administrative superior to examine my films just as freely without reference to me at all. I gave him absolute freedom to cut or even add as he pleased. But I don't seem to recall that many films of mine were submitted to the censors at that time.
How do I feel about present- day cinema? Well, some examples are wonderful indeed. But Arab cinema in general is, or so it seems to me, quite ordinary; even the acting, which is often far better than either script or directing, is rarely all that extraordinary in the end.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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