Weekly Mail & Guardian Reporter
A SCREENING of the Citizen Kane of Egyptian cinema, The Night of Counting the Years, will open the Egyptian Film Festival next Friday at the Seven Arts Cinema in Norwood. Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam, the film is set at the opening of the tombs of the pharaohs in 1881 at Deir El- Bahari.
The festival, presented by the press and information office of the Egyptian Embassy in association with the South African Cinema Foundation, will continue with a selection of contemporary Egyptian films, including:
* Missing Person by Mohamed Khan, about a young man who leaves the city for the quiet joys of the countryside;
* Mounir Radi’s The Visit of the President, about a village that transforms itself into an approximation of Las Vegas when the locals hear of an impending visit from the head of state;
* Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love, Tarek El Telmessani’s musing on the spirit of the Sixties, as a group of young people leave school to enter into a world of rebellion and change; and
* The Gloomy Night, by Atef El Tayeb — the story of a taxi driver in downtown Cairo who spends the night driving a prostitute to her various assignations.
A visiting contingent of Egyptian filmmakers will include Egypt’s top actress, Yusra. She has acted in more than 80 films including the work of Youssef Chahine, Salah Abou Seif and Sherif Arafa.
Other guests are directors Salah Abou Seif, Sherif Arafa and Mohamed Khan, critic Ahmed Sallen and actor Adel Imam.
A related event, presented by the Embassy of Tunisia, is the screening of The Lost Ring of the Dove. Director Nacer Khemir is a master of magical tales, having penned the book Scheherazade and filmed Tales of 1001 Nights. The Lost Ring of the Dove is based on an 11th-century Andalusian classic by Ibn Hazm.
For further information, phone the Seven Arts Cinema at (011) 483-1680