Any hopes entertained last year that the Cairo International Film Festival would be modernised and better-organised have evaporated into thin air with this year’s event. From opening night on Tuesday 27 November, mistakes occurred one after the other. Invitations for the opening ceremony intended for journalists were being sold outright at the gates. Thus several journalists could not attend, which led those who attended to organise a standing protest against the festival’s management.
This year’s event honoured one of Egypt’s greatest 20th-century comedians, Naguib al-Rihani, about whom the festival published a 300-page book compiled and edited by the director Mohamed Kamel al-Qalioubi. The surprise was that the festival introduced Rihani’s illegitimate daughter Gina, now 71 years old, who had agreed to appear in public for the first time and relate some of her memories of her father.
Anti-slavery
The festival opened with the British film Death at a Funeral, which had already received generally poor reviews in its native country and was an unfortunate choice for a major local event. The screening was interrupted for a full 25 minutes because of technical problems. As for promptness and sticking to schedule, it was even worse than the usual loose Egyptian standard.
The international film contest began with the Moroccan Oud al-Ward (The Lost Beauty) directed by Lahcen Zinoun, which presents a delicate human experience. It tells the story of Oud al-Ward, a slave who fights against bondage and gains her freedom through her passion for music and her great ability to play the oud, a type of lute. However her master rapes her and prevents her from playing her instrument. Oud al-Ward is bitter and distressed, especially after her master’s wife makes her have an abortion. Altogether, though, this film might be less memorable than its soundtrack.
Seventh heaven
The Egyptian Film Alwan al samaa al sabaa (Seventh Heaven), directed by Saad Hendawi and starring Farouq al-Fishawi and Laila Elwi, tells the story of Bakr, who dances the tannoura—a Sufi dance in which the dancer twirls around to free himself of his body weight. Bakr notices the pretty Hanan, who attends all his presentations and with whom he falls in love. Bakr is devastated when Hanan tells him that she is a prostitute, but he continues to dream about himself and Hanan and decides to forgive and marry her. He is able to forgive when he realises he has also made serious mistakes which need forgiveness, and only through forgiveness does he achieve real freedom. Screenwriter Zeinab Aziz employed the idea of the tannoura and the circle to reflect that one can always restart from where he had stopped. The actors give excellent performances, especially Hassan Mustafa, Sherif Ramzi and Mona Hala.
In the name of God
The Pakistani In the Name of God, directed by Shohaib Mansour, was among the most important movies. In spite of the film’s primitive techniques and the many dramatic gaps in the script, the film was one of the boldest shown at this year’s festival. The story is of two musician brothers, one of whom, Sarmad, becomes a terrorist by joining an extremist Islamic group. The group convinces him into giving up music on the grounds that it is anti-Islamic. The other brother, Mansour, travels to Chicago to further his music. The film shows their uncle leading an easygoing life in London but flabbergasted by his daughter’s wish to marry a Christian and becoming obsessed with the feeling that God will punish him if he approves the match. The father pretends to agree and persuades his daughter, Mary, to accompany him to Pakistan to meet her grandmother before her marriage. Once there he fools her, forcing her to marry Sarmad and leaving her in a village on the Afghan border. After 11 September Mansour is accused of being involved in the terrorist attack and is severely tortured. The torture scenes are disturbing as they portray Mansour writing slogans on his prison cell wall about his admiration for Ben-Laden, which indicates that the tyranny of America is the main reason behind the rampant feeling of hatred other nations feel towards America.
Meanwhile Mary manages to send a letter to her lover back home, and because she has British nationality she is saved by a trial held in Pakistan on the claim she was married by force. This episode is taken as a confrontational debate between the Islam embraced by terrorists and the Islam of moderate intellectuals.
Islam in their eyes
One of the strongest scenes in the film was Sarmad’s reawakening and his confession of the evildoings he committed in the belief they were in the name of God.
As a first directing attempt, the incidents take naïve turns, for instance Sarmad’s enlightened family never took any steps to prevent his terrorist indulgence. Muslim or oriental viewers will find this unrealistic. The film also portrayed America’s invasive war in Afghanistan but suddenly interrupted the action with scenes of the debate at the trial in which the same mujahideen are arguing their case regarding Mary’s predicament.
However, the film courageously examined several critical Islamic issues, and it is hoped it will be aired on Egyptian television to fight the rampant extremist ideas which still lurk in the minds of some fanatics.
Facts and reality
The Egyptian film On Air directed by Ihab Lami reveals how misleading the media can be and that the apparent reality could be different from the hidden facts. The film depicts a reality satellite TV programme called Be Silent and win a Million Dollars. When one young woman wins she is blackmailed by the channel to return the money or they will publish some racy pictures taken of her. On Air was boring to the point that many of the audience tuned out and left before it ended.
The jungle
The much-touted and much-awaited Egyptian film Al-Ghaaba (The jungle) proved—for this writer at least—a huge disappointment. The film, produced and directed by Ahmed Atef was heavily publicised on grounds that it realistically presented the plight of street children, to the point that actual street children have taken part in it. So far so good; the problem is that the film’s presentation of the dilemma of these children reads like a crime page in a newspaper. The horrendous acts of the basest human feelings appear as though they have been successively cut and pasted on film without the merest attempt to transform them into drama. Unbearably explicit scenes of cold-blooded grotesque murder crimes, rape, decapitation, and police brutality follow one after the other. This is not to say that such acts are unrealistic; it is just that all this hideousness does not in reality take place in the space of a mere three hours which is the duration of the film, and there is no dramatic link or connection between the incidents. Consequently, the characters lack depth. So the viewer is left with the feeling of watching the blackest of tragedies, especially as there is not one ray of hope or spot of goodness anywhere—which in itself is rather unrealistic. It is as though the director screened the raw data he had collected for the film but never came to making the final product.
The seminar held following the screening introduced some of the street children who acted in the film, but it was clear they felt offended at being thus used. One eight-year-old broke into tears because Atef repeatedly and crudely referred to them as ‘street children’, which this writer found hopelessly painful and rushed to comfort the little boy assuring him that “any of us may have ended on the streets had circumstances allowed it. We were just lucky, that’s all.”
Ezzat Abu-Ouf, head of the festival
Regina Abdel-Messih
On the eve of the festival Watani talked to Ezzat Abu-Ouf, director of the Cairo film festival for the second year in succession. Dr Abu-Ouf told Watani that he was the last in a line of high calibre cinema makers or actors including Saad-Eddin Wahba, Omar Sharif, Hussein Fahmy and Sherif al-Shobashy, who have directed the festival in the past years. “I consider myself luckier than those who preceded me in that they had to work on shoestring budgets. Whereas now, with the increase in the subsidy granted by the Ministry of Culture along with the help of sponsors such as business tycoon Naguib Sawiris I consider that I have a freer hand,” Dr Abu-Ouf said.
During his tenure Dr Abu-Ouf has made several modifications of the festival in appearance, content and presentation. “I was able to revive it as an international festival worthy of attention,” he said. “I introduced new ideas to the festival such as the competition for digital films and the festival’s social responsibility in introducing an annual fair in which goods produced by the handicapped are on sale.”
Dr Abu-Ouf said the recent decision to abolish customs on goods involved in film production was an excellent move and would have a beneficial effect on the industry. “It will reduce production costs and allow for better quality, finer films,” He said.
Banning Israeli films from participation has caused much controversy. Dr Abu-Ouf told Watani that it was not his responsibility to ban or allow Israeli films; which was up to the festival’s policy. “My personal opinion, though, is that whether or not Israeli films participate, there will always be someone who will find fault with the policy.”