Issue No. 606
Culture
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3 - 9 October 2002 Issue No. 606 Culture |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
In progress: A parallel track
Mohamed Khan has made 18 feature films all, with the exception of Ayyam El-Sadat (Days of Sadat, 2001), between 1980 and 1993. Among the most notable are Maw'id Alla Al-'Ashaa (Dinner Date) starring the late Soad Hosni, and Ta'er Alla Al-Tariq (Bird on the Road), Zawgat Ragul Muhim (Wife of an Important Person) and Ahlam, Hind wa Camilia (Dreams of Hind and Camilia), all starring Ahmed Zaki. Khan was among the first Egyptian directors to stir controversy by declaring that digital might be the answer to the star system and this year will complete his own digital project. The filming of Klephty -- co-produced by the Bologna-based Downtown Pictures and the French Ognion Productions -- begins this month.
I had the idea for Klephty over two years ago, and over the last twelve months I have worked extensively on the script with Mohamd Nasser Ali, who also wrote the dialogue. The title comes from the modern Greek klephtes which means, literally, "robber". Among people living on the coast, particularly among the older generations, the term is still common currency. It is a hangover from the time there were large Greek communities living there. Klephty, though, is set entirely in Cairo.
I have been considering going digital for some time -- it is five years since I bought a camera. I am not a pioneer but I soon realised that this was a way of being independent. Right now we are all working on digital projects -- Khairi [Beshara] has done it, Asmaa El-Bakri is doing it. And it's a logical step, the logical way of maintaining independence in today's industry, of making real films about real subjects and not just stuff that all looks alike.
Digital does not mean making miserable films but more intelligent ones. With Klephty I am relying heavily on team work -- the cast and crew are working on the basis of deferred payment, and we have cut overheads to the bone. "It's not tomorrow. It's now," [Mexican director] Roberto Roderiguez has said about digital. And when Soderberg, after receiving a double Oscar nomination and winning the Oscar for Best Director decides to make Full Frontal on digital, starring Julia Roberts and with everybody accepting tiny fees, with an overall budget that does not exceed $2 million, what is he saying? He is saying that I did this to prove that anybody with a Cannon XLS camera like this and a FinalCut Pro III programme loaded onto their computers can make a movie. Mike Figgis has directed several films on digital so far. And Hollywood is paying serious attention to such projects, working on transferring them to cinema later so they can save on prints. With Panasonic and Sony's joint-development of the High Definition camera, and with the involvement of Kodak -- these are all signs that the age of digital technology has really arrived, and that it offers a viable alternative for independent filmmakers.
In a sense I have always considered myself an independent filmmaker -- I have always been the instigator of my projects. The idea has always been mine, I co-write the script, I go about interesting actors in the projects, and only then do I approach producers, with a whole package deal. I have never worked to commission, and in a way producers have been lucky to have me because I come to them with a complete package. But right now there is a monopoly in the industry. The same people own the movie theatres and the distribution and production companies. They all aim at grossing around LE20 million with each film, which is a futile exercise. Even in Hollywood people do not think this way. There are always expensive productions alongside those on medium budgets, and those on small ones. But what local producers are doing now is to cook up one dish, and then to shove the thing down the throats of the audience in 60 movie theatres at once.
As regards the current project, well I'm not thinking about local distribution at this stage at all. I am lucky enough to have foreign parties who are interested in co- producing the project which means they will secure distribution for it somehow. Later on, if it is successful, word of mouth will probably prove enough to ensure that it returns home, that it appears on local cinema screens.
Everyone who has ever dreamed of making films should start working on their own projects on digital. There is a minimum of financial risk, and even if the work is not transferred onto film for theatrical release, it can still be shown on TV, will still be of broadcast quality. And there are going to be more and more ambitious projects: the boom in digital filmmaking has only just started, and it will mushroom to the extent that it will establish itself as a parallel track.
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