Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 March 2002 Issue No.576
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Aswan symposium closes
THE SEVENTH Aswan Sculpture Symposium, which started in February, will end mid-March. Organised by Cultural Fund this year's symposium hosted 16 artists from nine countries.
In more exciting news, 60 works that have participated in previous Aswan symposia will be hosted at an open sculpture museum in the city to be inaugurated by Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni. All these works employ granite from Aswan.
In addition, the symposium's director, artist Adam Henein, announced to reporters that the symposium donated two works of art to the Library of Alexandria, one to the Cairo International Garden and another to the Governorate of Giza.
At its closing ceremony the seventh symposium will honour a number of artists among whom are Abdel-Badie Abdel-Hayy, Mahmoud Moussa, Abdel-Hadi El-Wishahi, Sabri Nashed, and Mohamed Hagras.

Children's films
THE 12TH Cairo Children's Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 March. There are 140 films participating this year; short, long, documentary and cartoon productions from some 30 countries including Iran, Spain, Denmark, India and China.
The Festival of Festivals section will screen children's films that have won prizes in international film festivals. It will begin by the Swedish film A Friend for Paulette which participated in the Berlin Film Festival as well.

El-Bakri in Nantes
THE NANTES Film Festival will dedicate a special week-long section to screening the films of Egyptian filmmaker Asmaa El-Bakri. El-Bakri's latest production Beggars and Noblemen had been released in several French cities last year where it was successful. Her current project is a film based on a novel by Albert Cosseri.

Historicising Jerusalem
THE SUPREME Council for Culture held a two-day symposium this week on Jerusalem's history and architectural heritage which aimed, once more, to historicise the city's Arab legacy. Among the participants were Hassanein Rabie giving a paper on "Jerusalem an Arab Islamic City," Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr on Jerusalem' s historical beginnings, and Ramadan Abduh on the oldest excavations in the city. Furthermore, Mustafa El-Abbadi presented a paper on Jerusalem in historical papyri and Rabie Hamed analysed the writings of Muslim medieval historians and travellers on the Dome of the Rock.

Ismailia honours El-Ra'i
THE SECOND Conference of the Literati of Ismailia took place this week with critic Farida El-Naqqash as director and Gamal Hiragi as secretary-general.
The conference was held in honour of the late critic Ali El-Ra'i whose son Ahmed delivered a speech. Participating were a number of literary critics who highlighted El-Ra'i's illustrious career, among them were Abdel-Aziz Hammouda, Mohamed Enani, Shaaban Youssef, Mohamed Shiha, Hazem Shihata, Mustafa El-Dab' and Ahmed Mutawi'. The conference also proposed naming one of Ismailia's public squares after the late El-Ra'i.

International universities
ACCORDING to the cultural weekly Al- Qahira, the French and German universities currently under construction in Egypt are expected to start enrollment in 2003.
The French University, which aims to provide a large number of scholarships and study grants to Egyptian students, is expected to enroll 2500 undergraduates. The German University, on the other hand, projects an enrollment of 2000 students and will have two deans; one Egyptian and the other German.

Arabs in Damascus
THE DAMASCUS-based Dar Al-Mada is hosting it annual cultural celebration, Al-Mada Week, this month. Throughout that week they will host a number of Arab intellectuals including Nasr Hamid Abu Zeid, Tarek El-Bishri, and Mohamed Shahrour as well as organise an evening of poetry by Mahmoud Darwish. The event will also highlight Iraqi culture through concerts by Ilham Al-Madfa'i and Nasir Shamma.
Amongst those participating from Egypt are actors Nur El-Sherif, Poussi, Salah El-Saadani and Yusra. Al- Mada Week will honour novelists Abdel-Rahman Mounif and Emily Nasrallah as well as the late artist Bahgat Osman.
Headed by Iraqi writer and publisher Fakhri Karim, Dar Al-Mada is opening a branch in Beirut, Beit Al-Mada, in association with the Lebanese Al-Safir newspaper. The house will host similar cultural events as part of the Arab cultural season organised by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture.

Filming Jerusalem
THE PALESTINIAN filmmaker Rashid Mashharawi is working on a new feature film, Out of Things. The film reflects the current state of affairs in occupied Palestine and deals with people's daily struggles under occupation. Perhaps in an autobiographical strain, it depicts a Palestinian filmmaker's strife to produce a film on Jerusalem from civilisational, architectural and religious perspectives which forces him to deal with the concrete ramifications of occupation and settlement.
Mashharawi's latest production, Live from Palestine, a 52-minute documentary about the struggles of the journalists of the Palestine Broadcast Corporation, has been screened at several recent film festivals including Amsterdam and Ismailia.

Theatre in Jordan
AMMAN'S Theatre Days, the annual Jordanian festival of independent theatre companies organised by the Jordanian Al-Fawanis company and the Egyptian Al-Warsha, will start its ninth round on the 27th.
The festival typically includes a number of workshops and symposia among them a workshop on alternative venues for theatre performances by the Egyptian Tarek Aboul-Fotouh and another on "Burying the Actor" by Fadil Al-Ga'aybi while the Palestine poet and dramaturg Wasim Al-Kurdi is organising a workshop on "Drama and Education."
Among the plays participating are Fadil Al- Ga'aybi's Familia, Tawfik El-Gibali Al- Magnun, Ma't's Solo, Basim El-Qahhar's Kahrab, Basim Kusa's 'Ashaa Al-Wada', and Omar Ragih's Bayrut Safraa. Participating from Egypt are Hassan El-Geretli's Rusasa fil-Qalb, as well Ahmed El-Attar's Al-Fa'r. Of particular notice is Catherine Biscovitch's film Dancing Among the Dead based on Jean Genet's Four Hours at Chatila.
Compiled by Amina Elbendary

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