A wise man from the East
Somewhere between photography, graphic design and filmmaking,
Nesmahar Sayed finds Ahmed Youssef
"I was supposed to study cinema but my father refused and I was forced to study management," Ahmed Youssef recounts. This did not stop him; and the first step on the way was an unplanned meeting with Youssef Chahine in Al-Tawfikia. Youssef asked if he could show the auteur some photos he had taken of the Amr Ibn Al-Ass mosque. When Chahine saw the pictures, he asked how old Youssef was. "18" was the answer. Immediately Chahine said, "Your work reminds me of Shady Abdel-Salam. You care very much about structure..."
As Youssef remembers it, this was the first time he heard of Abdel-Salam. But why Abdel-Salam, the great costume designer and director (most famously of The Night of Counting the Years ), and with whom Youssef feels he has much in common: "I try to enhance the quality and structure of the photo to make it look like a painting."
At the age of 18, when he showed Chahine his work, Youssef was seeing a psychiatrist, who eventually persuaded him that cinema was a combination of art and industry: studying management would help him make films too. Chahine himself told Youssef that studying at the Film Institute may have a negative effect on his talent, offering him the opportunity to visit him at his office and attend the shooting of his films. "Chahine is my mentor. He introduced me to the big world of films and, through him, I found out about directors like Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock".
Born in 1970, Ahmed Youssef graduated from the faculty of commerce, Cairo University in 1997. A year later he started studying cinema at the American University in Cairo. This step was very important because it turned him into a successful director and screenwriter: in 2002 he received the first prize for his debut at the Nyon Documentary Film Festival in Switzerland; he was to receive another best documentary prize at the FIFA Festival International sur L'Art in Montreal, in 2009. The latter film was on the famous Egyptian painter Mahmoud Said -- a short docudrama. "At the ceremony where I was handed the prize," he recalls, "I talked not about myself but about Youssef Chahine." To Youssef, Chahine remains the model of the director who "should be like the captain of the ship, who takes control of the whole crew". He taught him that "each director should have his own philosophy" and that "a major director should understand all the other arts, considering that cinema is the seventh art".
For a while towards the end of the 1990s, Youssef joined the staff of Al-Ahram Weekly as a part- time photographer. The late Hosny Guindy, the founding editor, was so enthusiastic about his work he gave him the opportunity to publish his photos while still a student.
Youssef believes that talent is God's gift and that it should be translated through quality work and good structure. One source he draws on for self-education is watching successful people and reading about them. For him Um Kalthoum is an idol. "She went through a very hard life and crowned her career by receiving admiration not only in the Arab world but also in Europe, when she sang in Paris and attracted souls before ears..."
From the diva Youssef learned that he should not talk about any of his projects until he is done with it. "All I can mention is the idea of the project." That's why he did not talk much about his next documentary. "In July 2011, I started writing the script for my next long narrative documentary, Cairo by day and by night, which shows Cairo from 1920 till the 25 January Revolution." Youssef spent five years of his life between the United States and Canada. Returning to Egypt five months before the Revolution, it is as if he is discovering a new country -- this is as much as he will say.
He believes that part of the success a given person achieves in his life is due that person's suffering and grief. That is why he chose Mahmoud Said, who like Youssef suffered from depression. "When my father passed away I suffered from depression, and for me Alexandria," Said's city, "represents the therapy and recovery from whatever sad or disturbed feelings I have." The film about Said, An Artist from the East, discusses the painter's philosophy as shown in his paintings. "There is always a metaphysical aspect to life and the artist should always be aware of it... Something like the relation between man and God and the mystery of what happens after death, which we fear."
Youssef was educated in Catholic schools in Egypt and nuns played a major role in teaching him tolerance and faith. This appears clearly in his graphic work. "In graphic photos, I mix colours and photography. It involves training my eye in structure and in sensitivity to colours which also helps a lot with making films." In those graphics no one can miss the presence of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, who appear viewing chaos and disturbance. After Youssef arrived from abroad he felt that something big is going to take place in Egypt. "Disturbance and upside- down images were everywhere".
But when will he be able to direct his long narrative film? Youssef replied that before the Revolution he wrote a script, and when he searched for producers he was faced by the disastrous stumbling block in the way of both young and established directors. "We do not have the artist producer but we do have the funding producer," that's why films are delayed. Now producing a film that may cost LE30 Millions, according to him, is not acceptable because in such circumstances education and health may take priority over cinema. There were golden ages when the achievements of the film capitals of the world were emulated, but no such efforts have been made.
That is why teaching filmmaking courses as well as producing and directing documentary films is a way out of the frustration. "I exert the same effort but the result is always a choice between selling the film or participating in international festivals."
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