Of Frenchmen and the Maghreb
Youssef Rakha speaks with Youssef Sherif Rizkalla, artistic director of the 27th Cairo International Film Festival
"You know that the festival has an artistic office, headed by Sherif El-Choubashi. It is members of that office that undertake the curatorial tasks. If it is not based on personal experience of other festivals -- and, for the official competition, films screened at other festivals are out of the question -- then the selection depends on individual contacts with filmmakers or the recommendations of the festival's agents all over the world. In either case we ask for videos of the suggested films. Once they arrive, these videos are screened, sometimes more than once. We see them, we discuss them. Then we make our choices.
"You understand that the Cairo Film Festival is classified as an A festival, it's one of 11 festivals of its kind. What this means is that, among other qualities, no official competition film should have been screened at any other festival. Other festivals, the Alexandria Film Festival for example, do not have this restriction. But for an A festival anything that was previously screened at another festival, anything at all, however relevant or good, must be relegated to one of the fringe programmes. This makes our task extremely difficult -- especially in light of the fact that, for many filmmakers or producers, the first festival at which they screen a new film is seen as a major marketing opportunity. They want distributors to see their film, they want to sign contracts and finalise deals. They want their film to travel all over the world. And sadly the Egyptian film industry is not buoyant enough to provide all this.
"We try to make up for this shortcoming -- addressing it would be an altogether different, long- term story -- by providing media spotlights on official competition films. This could of course have repercussions elsewhere in the world, which though comparable is still not the same thing as the kind of marketing infrastructure festivals like Cannes or Venice offer -- with truly tempting distribution opportunities. Ultimately all that we can offer is an audience. So it remains the case that a filmmaker who agrees to premiere his film at Cairo does so for one of two reasons: either because they are really interested in coming to Egypt, for reasons that are not necessarily cinematic; or they are not particularly focussed on marketing or distribution, they have achieved enough in the way of material success or they are less interested in critics and institutions than the ordinary viewing public. This makes the task of finding a good film suitable for the official competition very difficult.
"The task is compounded even further when it comes to Arab films. Most Arab countries that produce cinema are on the Mediterranean coast. And the many festivals held earlier in the year in the Mediterranean west -- in Spain, Italy and France -- are always on the lookout for a good Arab film, so few and far between are the productions. This means that almost as soon as a film is produced it will be taken, which makes it incredibly difficult for us. Even films screened at the Institut du Monde Arabe festival, which we tried to argue was a local event aimed primarily at Arab residents of France, not a truly international event, cannot enter the official competition. Unless, we were told, we held a separate competition for Arab cinema -- which is hardly the same thing.
"This year we are fortunate enough to have the world premieres of three excellent Arab films: two from Syria -- Abdel-Lafif Abdel-Hamid's Ma Yatlubuhu Al-Mustami'oun (Listeners' Requests) and the promising Waha Raheb's debut, Ru'a Halima (Dreamy Visions) -- and one from Tunisia, Al-Tayib Al-Wehishi's La Danse Du Vent. It just so happened that the films haven't been screened anywhere, not even in their countries of origin. A lucky coincidence, you could say. The official competition also has the Palestinian filmmaker Hanna Elias's Mousem Al- Zaytoun (Olive Harvest). And then there is the controversial Egyptian entry, Hub Al-Banat (Women's Love) by Khaled El-Haggar. It is no exaggeration to say that such Arab presence in the present round -- in terms of both quantity and quality -- is unprecedented. A significant feat, this.
"Outside the competition there is a programme entitled Arab Cinema Now. This features excellent films that we would have loved to include in the competition, mainly from the Maghreb. The highlights include two Moroccan debuts: Fawzi Ben Saaidi's A Thousand Months and Narjis Al-Najjar's Dry Eyes. Both were screened to acclaim at Cannes. There is also a tribute to Arab woman directors, which includes a symposium to be held at the Gomhouriya Theatre on the 14th, coordinated by writer Iqbal Baraka. And a sprinkling of features in other programmes...
"Arab cinema aside, there is the French dimension. France as you know is this round's guest of honour. Of the festival's 185 films -- a significant increase compared to the previous rounds' 150 or 160 films, I might add -- nearly a quarter of the films on offer are French, and many are very recent productions, too. We are honouring Humbert Balsan, the producer who contributed to Youssef Chahine's films of the last decade or so -- making it all possible. He is also currently co-producing Chahine's latest film, Al- Ghadab (Fury) and Yousri Nasralla's Bab Al-Shams (Gate of the Sun). We're screening several of his productions including Chahine's Al-Masir (Destiny) and Nasralla's Al- Madina (The City). Balsan will be honoured on the 11th, and on that night his last production, Lebanese filmmaker Randa Shahhal's The Kite, which received the silver lion at the Venice Film Festival, will be screened in the presence of Shahhal."
