Pack of Cards

By Madame Sosostris

I was lucky enough, this week, to have had a chat with Cherif El-Shoubashi , the president of the Cairo International Film Festival. El- Shoubashi, a dear friend of mine, is also the first undersecretary of state for foreign cultural relations. He let me in on all the latest news about this year's festival. For starters, my sweets, there is going to be a veritable cornucopia of global cinema on offer... and that's what festivals are all about.

Former Jury president John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs is going to show, as are eight films produced by Humbert Balsan, many of which were co-produced in the Arab world. Balsan -- who is gracing Cairo with his presence -- is also being honoured by the fest. France is the guest of honor for this year's round, with Bon Voyage, starring Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu, set to open the festival in the presence of the film's director, Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Will the lovely Adjani herself make an appearance? Anything is possible.

El-Shoubashi said that Aishwarya Rai, a name that probably rings a bell because she was Miss Universe in 1994 and is now a major Indian movie star, is also expected to attend as a guest of the festival's special Bollywood section.

Italian directors Pupi Avati and Renzo Rossellini, German director Volker Schlondorf, and American producer Mario Kassar (Basic Instinct, Terminator 3) will also be contributing to the festival's discourse of cultures, and in general enjoying watching their films being shown to an Egyptian audience.

Speaking of films, those of you like me -- who have heard a lot about Divine Intervention, but haven't seen it yet -- will finally get the chance to see this co-French-Palestinian film that won a major critics prize at Cannes last year.

The festival runs from October 7-17.

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Festival season has begun, it seems, for the Cairo International Song Festival has been in swing since the 20th of August. During the opening ceremony -- held at the Cairo International Conference Centre -- honours were bestowed upon five musical legends.

Singer Mohamed El-Ezabi, songwriter Salah Fayez, and musician Fouad Helmi picked up awards, as did late musician Zakaria Ahmed and late singer Faiza Ahmed. In Faiza Ahmed's case, her eldest daughter accepted the award, while for Zakaria Ahmed, his youngest daughter Tahani received the award.

The festival is held under the auspices of Mamdouh El- Beltagi, the minister of tourism.

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I had a lovely time, my dears, at the Diplomatic Club downtown on Tuesday night. The occasion was a circumstance both happy and sad. For while we were there to wish the new Egyptian Ambassador to Japan Hisham Badr a cheerful farewell, here at the Weekly we were also bidding goodbye to a dear colleague, at least temporarily. I'm speaking, here, of Dahlia Hammouda, our beloved sub-editor and political correspondent, who also happens to be Mrs Hisham Badr, and will soon be an ambassador's wife in Tokyo. Dahlia and Hisham are both well loved by all those who know them, and we here at the Weekly will certainly miss Dahlia's comforting omnipresence and winning smile in the Central Desk.

A bevy of prominent personalities turned out to wish Ambassador Badr the best of luck, amongst them Chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Mustafa El-Feki, Abdel-Raouf El-Reedi, former ambassador to Washington, US Ambassador David Welch, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, dynamic parliamentarian Mona Makram Ebeid, and many others.

Hisham's good friend Amr Badr of Aberkrombie and Kent, was a truly gracious host.

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This would probably be as good a time as ever to explore some of the parts of the Cairo Opera House complex that you haven't experienced yet. One of those might be the Music Library, where an exhibition is currently being held showcasing the Opera House's summer children's art workshops. The exhibition, running through 31 August, features everything from sculpture to pottery and painting, all done by participants in the workshop.

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Children weren't the only ones busy with workshops this summer, it seems. The American Studies Summer Institutes in Egypt -- a series of workshops held by the Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt, have just taken place. The 29 participants went through an intensive two-week programme delivered by seven faculty members from George Washington University's Department of American Studies. The highly motivated university-level-participants represented 11 Egyptian national universities: Ain Shams, Al- Azhar, Alexandria, Assiut, Cairo, Helwan, Mansoura, Menoufiya, Minya, South Valley University and Tanta. At the end of the useful sessions -- which are set to become an annual event -- a dinner was held to honour the professors and the participants, which was attended by the commission's board member Ann Radwan.

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It's no wonder the chef in the picture is happy. The fish he's about to cook was hand-picked from a local market by him, and he's about to prepare it for the elegant diners at the Four Seasons Hotel by the Nile. It's one of the lovely aspects of Cairo that the hotel's Executive Chef Jamie Jones likes to muse about. He describes the variety of fish dishes he prepares for the hotel's Wednesday Sea Food Dinner Buffet as "extensive and exceptional".

It's one of those things you have to try for yourself to truly understand.