EGYPT is the third-largest movie producer in the world,=20 earning the country the title of the “Hollywood of the=20 Middle East”. The Egyptian Film Festival, which begins=20 today at the Seven Arts Cinema in Norwood,=20 Johannesburg, will present eight of the country’s=20 landmark films, made between 1968 and today.=20
The films, presented by the Egyptian embassy and the=20 South African Cinema Foundation, are:
* Al-Mallateily Public Bath (1973), in which a young=20 man from a small town on the Suez Canal moves to Cairo=20 to finish his studies and look for work. He finds a job=20 at a public bath where he meets, and falls in love=20 with, a prostitute. Jealousy and murder ensue. Director=20 Salah Abou Seif is a guest of the festival.
* The Forgotten (1994), directed by Sherif Arafa, also=20 a festival guest. Conflict between a railway worker and=20 a businessman highlights class differences in Egypt.
* The Gloomy Night (1989), directed by Atef al-Tayyeb=20 and based on a novel by Nobel prize-winning author=20 Naguib Mahfouz. In contemporary Cairo a man experiences=20 a dark night of the soul. The film explores existential=20 dilemmas and the impossibility of choice within a=20 gnostic universe where God is distant and obscured by=20 clouds. Nour al-Sharif, who will be at the festival,=20 won Best Actor at the 1994 Cairo Film Festival for his=20
* Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love (1994),=20 directed by Tarek el Telmessani and starring Omar=20 Sharif and the beautiful Yussra (also a guest at the=20 festival). This is the story of a group of young people=20 emerging from school in the Sixties, and their=20 involvement in the rebellious mood of the time,.
* A Man of Influence (1994), directed by Darek Al- Erran, is a thriller about an official in the narcotics=20 and vice squad. When he is involved in a raid on a=20 floating brothel on the Nile which nets some=20 influential people, he finds himself pressurised by his=20 colleagues to drop the case.
* Missing Person (1984) takes the viewer from the city=20 to the country as a young man, intent upon selling=20 ancestral land to buy a Cairo apartment, discovers the=20 quiet joys of rural existence. His return to the city=20 is postponed as he becomes involved in the lives of a=20 rich landowner, his wife and six daughters. Director=20 Mohamed Khan, a guest of the festival, addresses themes=20 of identity and belonging in modern Egyptian society.
* The Night of Counting the Years (1968). In 1881=20 three-thousand-year-old tombs of the pharaohs were=20 revealed to archaeologists by the leader of a tribe of=20 traditional tomb robbers. These discoveries changed the=20 face of Egyptology — and director Shadi Abdel Salam’s=20 film can be said to have changed the face of Egyptian=20 cinema. A masterpiece of cinema, it is dedicated to the=20 memory of the director, who made only one feature film=20 in his short life.
* The Visit of the President (1994), directed by=20 Mounir Radi. This is a comedy set in a small Egyptian=20 village. When it is heard that the president will be=20 paying a visit, the town is Americanised overnight –=20 streets are painted, illuminations are hung and=20 suddenly all the peasants are wearing jeans and=20 baseball caps. A light-hearted example of Egyptian=20 popular cinema.
* The Embassy of Tunisia will be screening The Lost=20 Collar of the Dove (1991), directed by Nacer Khemir.=20 This is a magical, visually sumptuous tale in which a=20 young calligrapher comes across a section of a=20 manuscript. If he finds the other part of it, he=20 believes, all of love’s secrets will be revealed.
What’s on when
Friday March 17: Gala opening 7.30pm: The Night of Counting the Years Saturday March 18 2.30pm: The Lost Collar of the Dove 6pm: The Lost Collar of the Dove 8pm: Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love 10pm: The Man of Influence Sunday March 19 8.15pm: The Gloomy Night Monday March 20 6pm: The Visit of the President 8pm: Missing Person Tuesday March 21 6pm: The Man of Influence 8pm: The Forgotten Wednesday March 22 2.30pm: Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love 6pm: Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love 8pm: Al-Mallatiely Public Bath Thursday March 23 6pm: The Forgotten 8pm: The Lost Collar of the Dove Friday March 24 6pm: Al Mallatiely Public Bath 8pm: The Night of Counting the Years 10pm: The Gloomy Night Saturday March 25 2.30pm: Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love 6pm: Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love 8pm: The Lost Collar of the Dove 10pm: Missing Person Sunday March 26 8.15pm: The Night of Counting the Years Tickets are R10 for all shows. For further information=20 contact the Seven Arts Cinema at 483-1680