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Animating Egypt How One Saudi Producer Spent the last 20 Years Reshaping the Industry by Yasmine El-Geressi Egypt was the first in the Arab world and Africa to establish an animation production. In 1934, the pioneering brothers Solomon, David and Frankel Herschel (recent immigrants from Soviet Belarus) who, despite their limited technical capabilities and resources, introduced Egypt’s answer to Disney’s Micky Mouse, Mish-Mish Effendi, in their film Nothing to Do. “David drew thousands of pictures, and Shlomo invented a device that enabled them to screen films to viewers without a special hall, it was something of a premature television set, made of a box, celluloid film, and a lantern to reflect the shots on a small screen. It also included a portable speaker that played the sound.” Nephew Isaac Rosenblum recalls, in the documentary Bukra Fil MishMish. Mish-Mish Effendi became a national star and was able to compete globally. The cartoon would even go on to include legends of the era, such as the Lebanese singer Sabah and Egyptian bellydancer Tahiya Karioka. Egyptian companies hired the Frenkel brothers to produce commercials with the character, the government used him for propaganda, the ministry of agriculture purchased a tutorial film in which Mish-Mish teaches people how to cope with cotton crop parasites. Just before World War II, the ministry of defense asked for a film calling the Egyptians to strengthen the army. The Frenkel brothers were even awarded a national medal. Animation continued to flourish in Egypt in the 1960s, when Ali and Husam Muhib, arts graduates leading a group of fellow illustrators and filmmakers, began producing a few low-budget films before taking charge of the animation department in the newly established Egyptian television. The main obstacle facing the Mohib brothers was the lack of trained artists, which forced them to do their best to train some of those who would
later become animation professors at the Higher Film Institute and the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1962 the Mohib brothers made The White Line, their first long film which, produced by Egyptian Television, was a mix of live action and animation techniques, as well as the first Arabiclanguage animation series, the thirty-episode Mishgias Sawah in 1979. The brothers became the most influential figures in animation production until the 1980s, though most of their work remained limited to advertising and propaganda with a few short films, animated series and songs. As Egypt’s animation facilities expanded more diverse work had a chance to thrive – such as Zeinab Zamzam’s Islamic-themed clay animation film using old-fashioned Claymation techniques (A Terra-cotta Dream, 1997;
Saudi Producer Abbas Alabbas (Supplied)
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