Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Culture	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

State awards
MINISTER of Culture Farouk Hosni met with the Supreme Council for Culture (SCC) on Monday to vote on the State Merit, Incentive and Excellence Awards as well as the Mubarak Awards for 2001.
Former Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha will receive the Mubarak Prize in Arts, critic Abdel-Qader El-Qutt, the Mubarak Prize in Literature, while the Mubarak Prize in Social Sciences goes to former Prime Minister Atef Sidqi.
The State Merit Awards for Literature will go to Alaa El-Dib, Mohamed Enani and Farouk Geweida. Only two State Merit Awards for Arts will be granted, to Ahmed Abdel-Wahab and Mustafa Abdel-Moeti. The third award was withheld. In addition Hassanein Rabie and Fawziya Abdel-Sattar won the State Merit Awards in Social Sciences.
State Excellence Awards in Arts will go to scriptwriter Osama Anwar Okasha and film critic Samir Farid while novelist Mohamed Galal will receive the Excellence Award in Literature. Again, the second Excellence Award in Literature was withheld. State Excellence Awards in Social Sciences will go to Abdel-Hadi El- Gohari, Laila Karameddin and Abdel-Basit Abdel-Moeti.
Winners of the incentive awards include opera singer Iman Abdel-Dayem for her performance in Thaïs, graphic designer Ahmed Ragab Mansour Saqr, Hani Halim for special effects in Al- Nazir (The Headmaster), director Ashraf Hassan Zaki for Shafiqa wa Metwalli (Shafiqa and Metwalli) and Nasser Ibrahim El-Ezabi for the children's play Hulm Fasih (An Eloquent Play). In the field of creative writing this year's winners include Mai El-Telmessani for her autobiography Dynyazad, Montasser El-Qaffash and Mohamed Ibrahim Taha for their collections of short stories, Ragab El-Sawi for his collection of colloquial poems Ahlam Maqsufa (Clipped Dreams), Abdel-Nasser Abdel-Hamid Noureddin Hilal for his biography of Louis Awad and Gamil Abdel-Meguid Hussein for his study on classic Arabic poetics. In addition, Sherif Kamel Shahin will receive the incentive award in library science, Ahmed Mohamed Wahban in political science and Hassan Abdel-Hamid Mahmoud Hassan in civil law and the philosophy of law.

Arab film in Paris
THE INSTITUT du Monde Arabe will hold the sixth round of the Cinema Biennale from 29 June to 7 July. The festival includes a competition for films produced during the past two years and will show 100 feature and documentary films of various lengths.
The Biennale will honour late actress Soad Hosni with seven of her films screened during the festival, including the 70s classic Khalli Balak Min Zouzou (Take Care of Zouzou) on opening night
Four Egyptian feature films will join the competition: Magdi Ahmed Ali's Asrar Al-Banat (Girls' Secrets), Dawoud Abdel-Sayed's Muwatin wa Mukhbir wa Harami (Citizen, Informer, Thief) Samir Seif's Deil Al-Samaka (Fish Tail) and Radwan El-Kashef's Al-Sahir (The Magician). Also participating are the Arab films that competed at this year's Cannes Film Festival including Palestinian Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention, Algerian Yemineh Beshir's Rashida, Syrian Osama Mohamed's Sunduq Al- Dunya (Pandora's Box) and Lebanese Ghassan Salhab's Ard Maghoula (Unknown Land).
Among the Egyptian documentaries in competition are Mohamed Kamel El-Qalyoubi's Ustourat Rose El-Youssef (The Legend of Rose El- Youssef), Marianne Khouri's 'Ashiqat Al-Sinima (Women Who Love Cinema) and Hala Lutfi's Suwar Min Al-Maa wa Al-Turab (Images of Water and Dust).
A special section will be devoted to Palestinian cinema from 1993 to 2002, screening 45 Palestinian feature and documentary films. Egyptian actor Nur El-Sherif will head this year's jury for feature films.
Among the highlights of the festival will be the screening of Mario Folbi's 1932 production Unshudat Al-Fouad (The Heart's Song), the first Egyptian talkie, recently restored by the French Cinematech.

Belated return
LEBANESE diva Fairuz will hold two concerts in Paris on 27 and 28 June, the first in the French capital in 14 years.
The singer's latest concert schedule has taken her recently to Las Vegas, Switzerland, Dubai as well as the Beiteddin Festival in Lebanon.

Costume drama
THE CRISIS surrounding costumes for the National Theatre's current production, King Lear, has finally been settled. Star Yehia El-Fakharani, playing the lead role, had repeatedly complained about the costumes, requesting they be changed but the necessary funds had not been available. Now that the play has been running for two consecutive months Hani Mutawie, director of the Theatre House, has approved director Ahmed Abdel-Halim's request for new costumes.
Next month King Lear will move to the Gomhouriya Theatre, to be replaced at the National by Tihibb Tishuf Ma'asah (Would You Like to See a Tragedy?).

More than opera
THE CAIRO Opera House continues to expand. A Creative Centre will be inaugurated by Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni on the Opera House grounds in July. The centre will house a film library as well as a screening room and a theatre equipped with the latest sound and light equipment. The Modern Dance Theatre Company will move to the new centre.

Television fiesta
THE ANNUAL Radio and Television Festival will be held from 6 to 11 July. Seventeen Egyptian productions will join the competition including Ayyam Al-Sadat (Days of Sadat).
Among the films participating in the competition is the Palestinian documentary 'Aras Al- Zuhour (Flower Weddings). It narrates the tragic deaths of Iman Heggo, seven months, Hanaa Kweider, 21 days, and Alaa Mahfouz, 14, all killed during the Palestinian Intifada. Directed by Iyad Al-Dawoud, the 30-minute film exposes the tensions and contradictions within Palestinian families as they confront grief and loss as well as martyrdom for the cause.
Compiled by Amina Elbendary

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