The Film Verdict: Cairo Film Festival Reviews 2022

CAIRO 2022: THE AWARDS

CAIRO 2022: THE VERDICT

VERDICT: Firas Khoury's notable feature debut 'Alam' about Palestinian teens living in Israel fought off the competition to win Cairo's main prize.

November 23, 2022

THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

The Golden Pyramid Award Alam (France, Tunisia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) directed by Firas Khoury

The Silver Pyramid Award, Special Jury Award, for Best Director Love According to Dalva Belgium, France) directed by Emmanuelle Nicot

Full Awards List

Walking through a fantasy courtyard of moving balls of light and walls lined with life size faux Egyptian statues of a woman holding a pyramid over her head, visitors to the 44th Cairo International Film Festival got a pretty good first impression of this glamorous and tastefully updated festival, the oldest and most respected in the Arab world.

With the return of Hussein Fahmy, one of the Middle East’s most famous and beloved stars, as president this year, along with new artistic director Amir Ramses as head of programming, the festival got a reset that often felt more like of a tweak. There was certainly a feeling that Cairo was continuing the modernization process begun by (Continues next page)

CAIRO 2022: THE VERDICT (Continued)

former festival head Mohamed Hefzy, getting rid of the exclusivity and élite guests in the front row and making way for many more enthusiastic festival goers who came to watch the movies.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Just like the phenomenon TFV noted at other summer and fall festivals from Karlovy Vary to IDFA, the end of the pandemic in Egypt has seen a frantic return to group gatherings and events, much to the benefit of the festival box office. Screenings throughout the day were close to full at the four venues of the Cairo Opera House and at a couple of additional theaters down the road in the upscale area of Zamalek. When the festival got underway, the city’s insanely heavy traffic spread even to these leafy streets lined with embassies, making physical attendance something of a miracle. One can understand why Hussein Fahmy is pushing to expand the festival throughout Cairo’s far flung neighborhoods, which would allow many more local residents to access its program, and why next year may see the festival explode in terms of attendance.

In terms of programming, the diversity and strength of the non Arab line up was notable in reflecting Amir Ramses’ refined taste for art house cinema. Hungarian master Béla Tarr was an esoteric choice for a master class (it was sold out immediately, however) as was Japanese director Naomi Kawase as president of the main jury, sending a signal that the festival is veering into a cineaste space. But as far as offerings from the Middle East films went, it was pretty much an average year. Many people expected the cancelation of the other important film festival in Egypt, El Gouna, to translate into a greater pool of top notch Arab films at Cairo, but this turned out not to be the case.

Full Verdict

VERDICT: Writer director Firas Khoury refreshingly normalizes the lives of a group of Palestinian teens in Israel and then adds a political overlay in this notable debut that deserves more attention than accorded in Toronto.

Jay Weissberg, November 22,2022

There’s a bright, brash new voice in Palestinian cinema and his name is Firas Khoury. With a terrific ear for teenage street talk and a clever way of giving character and politics equal weight without feeling forced, Khoury brings a breath of freshness sure to have an impact on the region’s cinema landscape. Alam (“the flag”) is set in a middle class Palestinian enclave within Israel, where a taciturn high schooler feigns being an activist to get close to a girl he’s interested in, only to awaken to his own political voice. Boasting notable editing and a truly surprising finale, the film deserves more attention than it received after its Toronto premiere, and while it’s already making the rounds on the festival circuit, distributors should take note, especially following its best film win in Cairo’s international competition.

We know we’re in unanticipated territory from the very beginning, as three buddies stroll around, their jaunty banter confined to the usual horny teenage boy topics – it’s the kind of “normal” middle class high school life we rarely see in Palestinian film. The camera is loose limbed and free like the guys themselves, whose conversation rings true the world over. Tamer (Mahmoud Bakri) is kind of a slacker, smart but unmotivated; Rida (Ahmad Zaghmouri) doesn’t talk all that much Full Review

ALAM

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Parental themes seem to be stacking festival line ups these days and it is the rare competition that doesn’t include several dramas about moms or dads trying to understand and relate to their offspring. In Bassem Breche’s poetic Riverbed, it is a mother who shuts out her daughter emotionally, until a dramatic event offers them a chance to start over. Using a minimum of dialogue and trusting in Nadim Saoma’s superb painterly images to set the mood, the film has so little narrative development, and such an abrupt ending, that it often feels like a character sketch.

This brooding drama (though elements of dry comedy appear here and there) is tenuously embodied by Lebanese actress and producer Carole Abboud

RIVERBED

VERDICT: Lebanese actress Carole Abboud brings a sense of wistful loneliness to the role of an independent woman estranged from her adult daughter in Bassem Breche’s sketch like feature debut.

Deborah Young, November 25, 2022

(Terra Incognita, Guardians of Time Lost), who won the best acting performance award in Cairo’s Horizons of Arab Cinema section where the film premiered. As the flinty Salma,

living on her own in a mountain village in Mount Lebanon, she is used to setting narrow boundaries in her relationships, and her life seems depressingly arid and routine. Full Review

KUDOS TO HUSSEIN FAHMY

The President of the Cairo Film Festival is an Ambassador for All Seasons

Once Hussein Fahmy, one of Egypt’s most popular actors and acclaimed movie star, was at a Hollywood party with Jack Lemmon and they started comparing notes. Lemmon, who had been nominated for eight Academy Awards and had won two, said he had made almost 50 films in his long career. He was surprised to learn that his Egyptian counterpart had made more than 100.

And to think that Hussein Fahmy, who served as president of the Cairo International Film Festival from 1998 to 2001 and this year assumed the role for the second time, became an actor by chance and almost against his will. He studied filmmaking at UCLA on a Fulbright scholarship and, after getting his MFA at the Theater and Arts Department, started looking for a job. For three years he directed commercials and short films.

“I came back to Egypt to direct my first feature,” Fahmy remembers. “I had my script and I was in touch with director Youssef Chahine, who was my tutor and my friend at the same time. But then I met a producer who insisted I become an actor. Chahine advised me to give it a try.” After shooting the film, there was no going back, and the handsome young Hussein Fahmy became known as “the Heartthrob of the Middle East ” “They were selling my films all over the Arab world and even in Israel. There was no way for me to go back to directing. But

studying directing helped me a lot as an actor: I know about lenses, frame ratios, scriptwriting and even editing.” Many awards later, the gentleman actor expanded his range to theater and TV.

But the movies are not the only thing that has occupied his busy life.

Well noted for his support of humanitarian causes, he was the first UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

Regional Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab States, a role he held for ten years. “It was my obligation as a human being and as a movie star who people listen to,” he says. Mr. Fahmy traveled around the Arab states addressing young people in particular and those with disabilities, encouraging them to be part of society. In 2007 he became the first Special Olympics

Ambassador for the Middle East North Africa Region. Distinct from the Paralympics, the Special Olympics features athletes with mental disabilities.

Now the glamorous Mr.Fahmy has returned for another term as Cairo Film Festival President, working with artistic director Amir Ramses and a large staff of professionals. His goal, he says, is for young film lovers and academy students to watch the festival lineup and enjoy all the different cultures presented by films from over 50 countries. “I want them to see in ten days what they can’t see during a year at commercial theaters. For me, success means having as many people as we can at panel discussions, lectures, and master classes with filmmakers like Béla Tarr. Mathieu Kassovitz and Naomi Kawase.”

(Continues next page)

Photo by Nora Youssef

KUDOS TO HUSSEIN FAHMY (Continued)

Mr. Fahmy has also been an adamant supporter of film restoration to preserve the rich history of Egyptian cinema. To open the festival gala night celebrations, he brought documentary clips from the 1920’s. At his urging, the festival restored and screened two Egyptian masterpieces, Tawfik Saleh’s The Diary of a Deputy in the Countryside and Ali Abdel Khaleq’s A Song on the Passage. He hopes restorations will become an integral part of the festival.

He may be a diplomat, but Hussein Fahmy has no difficulty expressing his views on the changes that have taken place since he was last president of the festival. He heartily disapproves of the notable politicization of festivals since the war in Ukraine started, like in Cannes where Pres. Zelensky spoke at length at the closing ceremony. “This is really unfortunate because film festivals are for art,” he reflects. “Economically and socially, our own society has changed. Egypt has been through two revolutions, don’t forget, in one year.” As he writes in the Cairo catalog, “How can the festival move forward, particularly in light of an artistic scene dominated by the specter of a world war..?”

“We were the pioneers of moviemaking The Egyptian cinema has always been the Hollywood of the Middle East. Its films have been wildly popular all over the Arab world thanks to our infrastructures and our great artists and artisans.” Of course, the Egyptian accent helps. “People in the Gulf may not understand people in Morocco, but the whole Arab world understands our dialect, which has also spread through literature and music and our great Arab singers Our words ring in the ears we sing when we talk and they all understand us.”

Said in a warm voice by a charming man, you can believe it.

FAR FROM THE NILE

HORIZONS

VERDICT: Cairo awarded its best documentary prize to this broadly appealing fly on the wall documentary about a group of musicians from countries bordering the Nile who go on a demanding hundred day tour of the U.S. Jay Weissberg, November 23, 2022

Twelve musicians from seven African countries bordering the Nile get together for a grueling hundred day tour of the U.S. in the uplifting documentary Far from the Nile. Director Sherief Elkatsha embedded himself in the troupe in classic docu fashion, becoming a part of the company to the extent that the musicians accept his presence even when tensions are high and nerves are frayed, making this more than a simple record of a musical odyssey but an essay on the benefits and pitfalls of collaboration. While the editing isn’t as creative as Elkatsha’s deservedly lauded debut Cairo Drives, Far from the Nile has broad appeal thanks to high octane personalities, joyful sounds, and the always amusing opportunity of seeing people trying to figure out American mores and privileges. Winner of the best non fiction film at the Cairo Film Festival, the documentary will easily slip into streaming sites and v.o.d. following further fest play. Full Review

INTERNATIONAL CRITICS WEEK

There are no whirling dervishes in flying white skirts in Christian Suhr’s intenselyly observational exploration of contemporary Sufism in Egypt, Light Upon Light. (The well known dervishes are a familiar symbol of the Sufi tradition in Turkey.) Instead, the Danish anthropologist helps viewers understand what a wide world it is inside Islam and how many different kinds of people, old and young, men (especially) but also women, have chosen to follow the mystical path in their religious practice. Its bow at CPH:DOX and international premiere at Cairo should attract the attention of broadcasters and streamers on the lookout for offbeat docs with well defined niche interest. The film’s title comes from the Verse of Light in the Quran, and the metaphor of spiritual light as the illumination of the divine presence is examined from every angle and in many voices. But is the light of the Sufis the same light that is seen in other forms of Muslim worship? Full Review

LIGHT UPON LIGHT

VERDICT: Danish director and anthropologist Christian Suhr’s feature documentary offers a respectful yet compelling peek into the surprisingly diverse communities of Sufi worshippers within the Islamic tradition of Egypt.

Deborah Young, November 22, 2022

HORIZONS OF ARAB CINEMA COMPETITION

THE FAMILY

VERDICT: The toxic privilege of Algeria’s ministerial elite is the target of Merzak Allouache’s fitfully successful mix of class satire and political thriller. Jay Weissberg, November 24, 2022 Algeria’s most prominent filmmaker Merzak Allouache is in his late 70s and yet almost no other director his age continues to explore the medium with the same inquisitive and open spirit. That’s not to say all his films are on the level of his early classics or some of his top later works like The Repentant and The Rooftops. His latest, The Family, is a not entirely successful mix of class satire and political thriller set in 2109, revolving around a corrupt former minister and his hysterical wife who need to bypass a travel ban and get out of the country fast. As dysfunctional families go they’re an extreme example, representative of entitled officials from a generation warped by power who raped the country despite once being part of the revolutionary movement. The film overdoes the couple when what’s needed is Buñuelian wry understatement, especially given how he contrasts them with their “normal” activist lesbian daughter. Full Review

CRITICS WEEK COMPETITION

VICTIM

VERDICT: Competing forms of victimhood expose a rotten racist society in director Michal Blaško's prize winning Oscars submission.

Stephen Dalton, November 25, 2022

The politically useful victim status of one marginalised outsider group is cynically weaponised against another in Slovak director Michal Blaško’s assured debut feature, a prickly morality play that

squeezes some big questions and timely themes into its modestly scaled social realist format. After picking up acclaim in Venice, Toronto and elsewhere, Victim was recently named as Slovakia’s official contender in the Academy Awards race for Best International Film. Though the topic feels familiar and the dramatic treatment is fairly straight, that Oscars connection and positive critical buzz should solidify healthy art house prospects. Meanwhile Blaško’s film continues its prize winning global festival tour, earning a Special Jury Mention in Cairo last week.

Igor’s memories of the attack seem vague, until Czech police investigator Novotny (Igor Chmela) steers him to give the crime a racial dimension, with blame falling on the dark skinned Roma neighbours upstairs who are already on prickly terms with Irina. When the family’s eldest son is arrested, it looks like an open and shut case: perfect victim and perfect villain. Full Review

Recapping Highlights of the 8th Day

European Film Academy 2022 Excellence Awards Announced

The winners of the Excellence Awards, honoring the arts and crafts. have been unveiled by the European Film Academy

European Cinematography Kate McCullough Quiet Girl

European Editing Özcan Vardar & Eytan İpeker, Burning Days

European Production Design Jim Clay Belfast

European Costume Design Charlotte Walter Belfast

European Make up & Hair Heike Merker All Quiet on The Western Front European Original Score Paweł Mykietyn EO

European Sound

Simone Paolo Olivero, Paolo Benvenuti, Benni Atria, Marco Saitta, Ansgar Frerich & Florian Holzner

The Hole

European Visual Effects

Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller & Markus Frank All Quiet on The Western Front

The Awards take place Dec 10, 2022

Göteborg announces first Focus: Homecoming Titles

Stories about coming home have always been at the center of culture. But what does it mean to come home? What makes home a profoundly existential matter? Through stories about coming home we get the chance to reflect upon who we are, who we’ve ueen and who we want to be. In Focus: Homecoming, f Film Festival will explore a series of stories about homecoming by contemporary filmmakers, highlighting perspectives of what constitutes a home in our modern world.

Godland

Directed by Hlynur Pálmason R.M.N.

Directed by Cristian Mungiu

The Future Tense

Directed by Joe Lawlor, Chrstine Molloy Pamfir

Directed by Dmytro, Sukholytkyy Sobchuk

Goteborg Festival takes place January 27 Feb 5. 2023

Springs International Film Awards

Palm

to honor Colin Farrell

The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that Colin Farrell will receive Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor for his performance in The Banshees of Inisherin. The Film Awards will take place in person at the Palm Springs Convention Center.The event will be presented by American Express and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight and IHG.

Palm Springs International Film Festival takes place Jan 5 16, 2023

Sundance 2023 Trailer: All Eyes on Independents

Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19 29, 2023

Quiet Girl

Godland

Photo by Matt Easton

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

THE NIGHTSIREN

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

LOVE ACCORDING TO DALVA

VERDICT: A past tragedy haunts the Slovak woodlands in this eerie mystery horror in which a woman labelled a witch by villagers reclaims her power.

Carmen Gray, November 22, 2022

With her sophomore feature The Nightsiren, which won the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the Filmmakers of the Present section at Locarno, and was in the Midnight Screenings programme of the Cairo International Film Festival, Slovak director Tereza Nvotova joins a crop of female directors that have been putting a revisionist spin on portrayals of witchcraft, and spotlighting the misogynist mythologies that have fuelled fear around female independence and sexuality through the ages. She has collaborated again on screen writing with Barbora Namerova, who was co writer on her debut feature Filthy, about the rape of a student by her math teacher, and its traumatic aftermath within an inadequate mental health system. The pair venture into genre territory with The Nightsiren, to again question patriarchal power and the way ingrained societal prejudices enable the violent oppression of women.

Situating the film mid way between mystery and horror, they opt for eerie atmosphere, and suspenseful ambiguity over whether or not supernatural forces are at play in its strange events, rather than relying on jump scares and outright gore. However, there is sufficient chill in several bloody moments to unnerve those with a taste for fright. Full Review

VERDICT: Director Emmanuel Nicot's assured debut feature navigates dark subject matter with compassion, warmth and great performances. Stephen Dalton, May 20, 2022

A sensitively handled exploration of potentially lurid subject matter, Love According to Dalva is a quietly powerful debut feature by the young Belgian writer director Emmanuelle Nicot. Premiering in Critics’ Week in Cannes, this humane depiction of sexual abuse and its aftermath is not exactly a feel good family movie, but it does have plenty to recommend it, notably a strong aesthetic and a magnetic lead performance by young screen novice Zelda Samson. Further festival play seems assured after Cannes, with decent potential for art house theatrical and streaming interest.

Love According to Dalva opens in a moment of traumatic rupture, a surprise police raid on a house in Northern France which leaves sulky 12 year old Dalva (Samson) in distress and confusion. Taken into state care against her will, she is first subject to the indignity of an intimate medical examination, then deposited in a residential youth shelter full of other vulnerable children, mostly in their teens. The back story gradually emerges that Dalva has been in an abusive, controlling, incestuous relationship with her father Jacques (Jean Louis Coulloc’h), who now sits in prison in Reims awaiting trial. But she angrily refutes this interpretation, insisting that Jacques loves her, and that she is old enough to know her own mind. “I’m not a girl, I’m a woman,” she protests. Full Review

HORIZONS HOURIA

CAIRO’S NEW FESTIVAL DIRECTOR AMIR RAMSES TAKES CHARGE

VERDICT: Young actress Lyna Khoudri sparkles as an Algerian dance student forced to reorder her priorities after she is physically assaulted in an emotion clad feminist drama directed by Mounia Meddour ('Papicha').

Deborah Young, November 17, 2022

An aspiring ballet dancer is forced to change the course of her life when she’s attacked on her way home one night in Houria, a drama bursting with female energy and power despite its predictable storyline and an over abundance of optimistic, self congratulatory scenes celebrating female creativity. Full Review

THE FILM VERDICT: This is your first year directing the Cairo International Film Festival, arguably the most important festival in the Middle East. How much does your previous experience as head programmer at El Gouna and other events count, and how much have you had to adapt your approach and program to an existing situation and to a festival with a 44 year history?

AMIR RAMSES: I grew up in Cairo and I’ve known the festival for a lot longer than I’ve worked in cinema. There is a continuity with what I was doing in El Gouna, but Cairo is also different. Every professional in the Arab world now sees Cairo as the place to go to have their meetings and find interesting projects. What I want to do is to bring back some of the atmosphere and excitement it

had in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. When I was a 17 year old film student, coming to the festival, going from one film to another to see the Taviani brothers or John Malkovich or (Continues next page)

AMIR RAMSES TAKES CHARGE

(Continued)

Theo Angelopoulos on stage it was something grand. That’s what I want to happen for festival audiences today.

Gulf festival, the decline of Carthage, the absence of El Gouna and the return of Marrakech as a glamorous Francophone event, the MENA region landscape is less cluttered. What advantages does this give Cairo and what pressures does it put on you?

TFV: At the opening ceremony, you came on stage to introduce a cineaste’s cineaste, Hungarian master Béla Tarr, and to talk about the restoration of classic films that will be screened this week. Is there an Egyptian audience for this type of refined film fare?

AR: When more than 500 people wake up early Sunday morning to get tickets for the master class of Béla Tarr we had to add more chairs, it was sold out immediately you know there is an audience. This is the amazing part about Cairo: you have an audience for the new films but you also have one for Béla Tarr and the classics. Today we are showing Youssef Chahine’s 1970 film The Choice, a restoration done by the Red Sea Festival which graciously loaned us the print. The restored version has never been seen in Egypt before, and we are showing it in a big open air theater and waiting to see how many people will come.

TFV: Many foreign journalists and critics show up to watch the new Arab films. With no major

AR: I think the lack of festivals in the Arab world is never an advantage. The festivals grow up one next to the other. Having Marrakech coming back with Rémi Bonhomme [appointed artistic director just before the festival was closed by the pandemic] benefits us; we all benefit from having Cairo and Red Sea in the region. What’s important is having distributors come to the region and create that industry circle, starting in Marrakech and coming to Cairo and going on to Red Sea. We might be competing a little bit for films, but I always joke there are many fish in the sea. How many Arab filmmakers are there? How many need the chance to premiere their films in the region? They need that push to get distribution. One festival is not enough.

marketplace. The most challenging aspect is explaining to distributors why their films should come to Cairo. Where will they go from here? Are there cinemas for these films? So the economic aspect might be a bit challenging. Sure, there are old school distributors used to dealing with Cairo, but on a trip to Europe I approached new ones too, explaining the kind of lineup we have, the jury members we have, and I think we succeeded in getting new distributors and sales agents to join our clan this year.

TFV: What are the challenges programming international art house cinema in Egypt?

AR: Usually art house films are not really appreciated in the

TFV: Under the previous director Mohamed Hefzy, the festival’s technical elements improved enormously: better projection, using film theaters in downtown Zamalek, etc. What further changes along these lines would you like to see?

AR: One day I would like to see the festival spread out all over the city, not locked in the Opera House [a complex of five screens that are the festival’s main venues]. Cairo is huge and we need to approach people in their own neighborhoods who may be 30 kilometers from the Opera House. Having twenty more venues would allow the audience to get a connection back to the festival like in the 1990’s. We were amazed at the 43,000 (Continues next page)

AMIR RAMSES TAKES CHARGE (Continued)

yet there is only a single woman director, Mounia Meddour, in the Arab Horizons section. Is Arab and MENA region production lagging behind on this?

tickets sold last year, but I think Cairo can do more than that.

TFV: A word on the presence of women filmmakers, who have dominated festivals like Morelia this year. The Cairo festival has clearly made an effort: you gave the Faten Hamama Excellence Award to Egyptian director Kamla Abouzekri, who has boldly tackled women’s issues in her films. The international selection teems with female directors,

AR: I realize we only have one film in Arab Horizons made by a woman. It’s all about production: the number of women in Egypt who have managed to make a feature film, you can count on your fingers. Though two out of four Egyptian short filmmakers in the festival are women. Of course, some countries like Lebanon and Morocco are more open. It’s not nice to say, but the Arab film industry is pretty macho, and we want to change that. Four of the seven members of the main jury are women. And for the first time in the Cairo festival’s 44 years, a woman director is jury president. It’s a name you would select in any case without thinking there are reasons behind it she’s Naomi Kawase! You send that message. You create that equality, without sacrificing the habit of having a great, established filmmaker.

Interview conducted by Deborah Young and Jay Weissberg

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

SOMETHING YOU SAID LAST NIGHT

VERDICT: Luis De Filippis’ laid back tale about an embattled but loving family on vacation pops with a riveting Carmen Madonia as the trans sister. Deborah Young, November 18, 2022

Turning naturalism into stylistic cool as she explores the psychological dynamics of a family of four on a banal summer vacation, Canadian Italian filmmaker Luis De Filippis hits the right offbeat note in her first feature, Something You Said Last Night. The film simultaneously sucks you into the embarrassment and miseries of post adolescence, in which two 20 something sisters struggle through the cusp of leaving home and setting up their lives in the big world, while Ren (Carmen Madonia), the trans sister, tries to break out of her self imposed isolation. Though the film’s deliberate gaucheness and lack of drama will not be to everyone’s taste, it does manage to get under the skin of this normal yet extraordinarily modern family with diabolical skill. It won the Changemaker Award at Toronto, where it bowed, and the Sebastiane award at San Sebastian, effectively launching De Filippis on a career to watch. It was also popular with audiences at the Cairo Film Festival, where it played on the same day as the Pakistani film Joyland.

As they drive to their one week holiday on a lake, with stoic Dad (Joe Parro) behind the wheel and talkative Mama (Ramona Milano) singing Italian songs along with the radio, it becomes clear that this happy family shares the same petty dysfunctionality that probably afflicts all human units of the kind.

Full Review

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

19B

VERDICT: Ahmad Abdalla’s latest is a handsomely produced, effective drama about a redundant Cairene house guard, the sole resident of a dilapidated mansion, trying to stave off the encroaching collapse of his world.

Jay Weissberg, November 18, 2022

Egyptian writer director Ahmad Abdalla burst onto the scene in 2009 with Heliopolis and, one year later, Microphone, two films with a freshness and youthful

energy that felt like a revitalized force in the nation’s industry. After the Revolution his work took an understandably darker tone, especially his finest

film, Rags & Tatters, but he seemed to have stumbled a bit in subsequent productions until his newest title, 19B. With a slim narrative and a straightforward approach, Abdalla is more in control here, using the story of an old porter in an abandoned Cairene mansion to comment on class, the dignity of work, and the changing social fabric of the city. Though an abrupt attempt to turn the film’s villain into a potentially sympathetic figure has no basis for plausibility, this handsomely produced, effective drama will likely find welcoming festival berths and a modest international life on streaming sites.

The film’s protagonist (Sayed Ragheb) isn’t given a name: he’s one of Cairo’s vast number of bawabs, or building guards

Full Review

LEBLEBA HONORED WITH LIFETIME ACHEVEMENT AWARD

During the 44TH CIFF Opening Ceremony, iconic actress, Lebieba received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Her extensive repertoire, beginning at age 5, encompasses 88 films and 4 TV drama hits. She is best known for her songs and monologues, where she excelled in providing celebrity imitations, which reached 268 songs in total, including 30 songs dedicated to children. Lebleba has received the Best Actress Award several times in different festivals and film events.

Hussein Fahmy, President of Cairo Film Festival, commented, stating: “We are proud to present CIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award to the iconic star, Lebleba, who has devotedly contributed to the Egyptian cinema and TV drama as one of the most recognizable Egyptian celebrities throughout her career. Since the early years of her professional journey, Lebleba dedicated her life to the filmmaking industry through her versatile work. Personally, I am honored that I have been part of her long standing career where I starred alongside her in several films.”

Lebleba expressed her delight to receive the award, saying: “I have been previously honored in different regional and international film festivals, yet I find it very special to receive the honorary Lifetime Achievement Award from Cairo International Film Festival. This award is every Egyptian actor’s dream and I am delighted to stand on the festival’s stage as one of its honorees.”

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

THE DAM

VERDICT: Lebanese artist filmmaker Ali Cherri delivers a visually mesmerising and quietly political first feature, set among Sudanese bricklayers working on the biggest hydroelectrical dam in Africa.

Clarence Tsui, May 25, 2022

The Dam is the final part of Lebanese visual artist Ali Cherri’s film trilogy about what he describes as “geographies of violence”. The first short film, The Disquiet, uses fault lines and earthquakes as a

metaphor for Lebanon’s long running political crises; the second short, The Digger, chronicles a lone caretaker of some ancient ruins in the arid hinterlands of the United Arab Emirates, his conservation work becoming a building block of the country’s historical narrative.

This final installment, which also happens to be Cherri’s first feature length work, elaborates on the themes of the previous two, while also extending its engagement with an audience perhaps more conventional than his usual museum gallery fanbase. Set among a group of bricklayers toiling in the remote north of Sudan, The Dam is about both destruction and construction or to be exact, catastrophe dressed up as creation, symbolised by the titular, monstrous mega structure which looms large over the protagonists’ lives.

Zeroing in on a worker’s slow descent into madness as he nurtures a mud made Frankenstein in the wilderness an act of defiance, perhaps, against that monument to human folly… Full Review

Scenes from the Festival

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

LOVE ACCORDING TO DALVA

VERDICT: Director Emmanuel Nicot's assured debut feature navigates dark subject matter with compassion, warmth and great performances.

Stephen Dalton, May 20, 2022

A sensitively handled exploration of potentially lurid subject matter, Love According to Dalva is a quietly powerful debut feature by the young Belgian writer director Emmanuelle Nicot. Premiering in Critics’ Week in Cannes, this humane depiction of sexual abuse and its aftermath is not exactly a feel good family movie, but it does have plenty to recommend it, notably a strong aesthetic and a magnetic lead performance by young screen novice Zelda Samson. Further festival play seems assured after Cannes, with decent potential for art house theatrical and streaming interest.

Love According to Dalva opens in a moment of traumatic rupture, a surprise police raid on a house in Northern France which leaves sulky 12 year old Dalva (Samson) in distress and confusion. Taken into state care against her will, she is first subject to the indignity of an intimate medical examination, then deposited in a residential youth shelter full of other vulnerable children, mostly in their teens.

Full Review

FILMING IN EGYPT

EGYPT SPOTLIGHT

The Services Center for International Productions is the only official party responsible for obtaining scouting & filming permits for international production companies filming in Egypt.

Egyptian Media Production City is the biggest media and production hub in the Arab region, Middle East and Africa.

It is located 10 Km away from the Giza Pyramids plateau and stretches over 2 million sqm in addition to one million sqmlocated within the Media Free Zone. EMPC includes state of the art studios with various surface areas, administrative and technical headquarters for Egyptian and Multi national companies.

It also includes outdoor shooting areas, a complex for production and technical services and more than 30 Egyptian and Arab satellite and radio channels that broadcast their content via the Egyptian satellite Nile Sat. These services contribute to providing Arab and foreign production companies, that would ike to shoot in Egypt, with the required facilities and amenities

SERVICES CENTER

The Center offers all foreign production requirements from production services, equipment, professional staff and crew, in addition to distinguished production facilities to ensure a perfect and quick production phase for movies and TV series. This is done in collaboration with the State Ministry of Information; the Defense Ministry, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Customs Authority)

LEBANESE MINISTER

MEETS

WITH ABDEL FATTAH ALGIBALL

A DAY TO

DIE

CAST VISIT EMPC

Any foreign production company planning to film in Egypt has to send a formal request to the Services Center for Intl. Productions including all necessary information such as final script version in English, lists of crews, filming schedule, etc.

Engineer Ziad Al Makari, Lebanese Minister of Information, visited EMPC last month, accompanied by a Lebanese media delegation. They were received by Abdel Fattah Al Gibali, EMPC Chairman of the board, and a number of the city’s officials after the meetings of the Council of Arab Information Ministers, hosted by Cairo over the past three days ended.

This Fall, stars of the American movie A Day to Die Leon Robinson, Brooke Butler, Egyptian actor Mohamed Karim and director Wes Miller toured the EMPC to see its technical and technological facilities, and its most important filming locations which included the outdoor shooting areas. They also visited the Cinema Heritage Restoration Center, through which old films and documentaries are restored and preserved from damage and being old.

At the end of the visit, the movie crew expressed its admiration for the technical and technological capabilities, the state of the art studios that are equipped with the latest filming methods, as well as the outdoor shooting areas that put EMPC on the map of international cinematography.

EMPC FACILITIES offer more that 16 outdoor shooting areas, 80 studios, production services comples, Dolby Atmos Studio, Cinematic Restoration Center, Media Services Center, OB vans & Internatioal Academy for Media Service.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

THE WOODCUTTER STORY

OUT OF COMPETITION ALCARRÀS

VERDICT: Mikko Myllylahti's impressive debut feature is a poetic and perplexing look at a man facing the diminishing of his life's work with otherworldly stoicism.

Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, May 20, 2022

The man at the centre of The Woodcutter Story either knows something the rest of us do not or he’s the most hapless man anyone has ever seen on a screen. In one scene towards the end of the film, his offspring performs a gut wrenching act and yet all Pepe does in response is gaze in stupefaction. His response is entirely in keeping with his hopeful, passive character. As one of his colleagues says, he has always been a half full kind of man. When we first meet him, he has a job and a family. By the end of the film’s first part, the job has gone, as has the wife. And by the time we get to watch his offspring in the aforementioned scene, we have seen him go through so many tribulations that Job might consider his own biblical travails mild. Naturally, the question then, is what does this all mean?

That question is also at the heart of Mikko Myllylahti’s film. The Finnish director inserts the question not into Pepe’s mouth but that of a supporting character who grapples with meaning. That grappling leads him to seek out spirituality with a so called “psychic singer”, a weird man claiming to be able to communicate with the dead. After initially falling under the spell of this psychic, a volte face from his mentor changes his mind and soon enough he’s drawn to violence. It’s a tribute to Myllylahti’s screenplay that this sidebar is as engrossing as the main story. Full Review

VERDICT: Carla Simón's second feature, which competes in Berlin, is a novelistic yet unsentimental look at a rural Catalan family.

Boyd van Hoeij, February 15, 2022

A Catalan family of peach farmers try to survive in the unforgiving world of today in Carla Simón’s involving contemporary drama, Alcarràs. This ode to familial unity, even as it ponders the differences between generations, is told in the loosely observant style familiar from Simón’s well received debut Summer 1993, finding a pleasing middle ground between poetic storytelling and grounded in reality realism. In Alcarràs too, there is a welcome absence of sentimentality and plenty of room for character details and family dynamics that’ll make most audiences nod their heads in recognition. But unlike Summer, the scope here is wider and more novelistic, as it chronicles a large family with many characters all trying to deal with desires and troubles both personal and collective. This Berlinale competition film should further consolidate the rapidly growing reputation of Simón as one of Spain’s most interesting new voices and a Catalan voice at that.

Endless fields of fruit trees and vegetable patches somewhere in the picturesque Catalan countryside are the playground of the preteen kids Iris (Ainet Jounou) and twins Pere and Pau (Joel and Isaac Rovira). Of course, they do things adults wouldn’t necessarily agree with, like hitting each other over the head with lettuces from a neighbouring plot or drinking hot watermelon juice from a stolen fruit that’s been sitting in the sun all day. Full Review