The 3rd edition of the Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival took place on 24 – 31 January and was dedicated to the great Egyptian acting legend Faten Hamama who had passed away a week earlier. It honoured the Egyptian actress Libliba, and celebrated the centenaries of the Egyptian film directors Salah Abu-Seif and Kamel al-Telmesani.
The guest of honour this year was French feminine cinema.
The festival screened 66 films, among them the Golden Globe winner of Best Foreign Film in January 2015, the Russian Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev.
The opening ceremony was held at Luxor temple and featured the 1922 silent film The Wife of the Pharaoh by Ernest Lubitsch. According to Muhammad Kamel al-Qalyoubi, President of Noon Foundation for Culture and Arts which holds the festival: “Shortly after it premiered in 1922, the film disappeared and parts of it were scattered. Last year a restoration project managed to put it back together again.”
Watani International
1 February 2015