Large turnout for Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman' at Cairo Film Festival

Eslam Omar , Thursday 21 Nov 2019

The first public event of the 41st Cairo International Film Festival was sold out with dozens gathering on Tuesday morning to watch Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci's The Irishman

The Irishman
A big turnout on Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman' at Cairo Film Festival

The box office of the second screening of Netflix's big-spending 'The Irishman' at the Cairo Opera House witnessed a huge turnout Thursday on the part of audiences, especially youngsters, on the first day of the 41st edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

Five hours before the screening of the film at the Cairo Opera House's Main Hall, tens of young spectators lined up in front of the box office, while others preferred to book their tickets online.

Irishman

Martin Scorsese's film was screened first in Cairo at Wednesday's opening ceremony attended by dozens of Egyptian, Arab, and foreign actors, in addition to filmmakers and arts journalists.

For the last time in theatre in Cairo before its release on 27 November on Netflix, the $160 million production, based on Charles Brandt's book 'I Heard You Paint Houses,' stars Robert De Niro in his ninth cooperation with Scorsese, in addition to Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

Irishman

The film, that took over a decade in the making, is a star-studded gangster epic using 117 different filming locations and 309 scenes, which together add up to a run-time of three hours 29 minutes.

Former henchman Sheeran (played by De Niro) is claimed to have killed more than 25 people on the orders of mafia boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and truck driver, union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

With De Niro, 76, playing Sheeran across several decades, from a 34-year-old in 1955 to his 2003 death aged 83, the film uses technology developed by George Lucas to digitally "de-age" actors on screen.

Irishman

Running until 29 November, the CIFF is packed with activities and is not only limited to screening 153 films from 63 countries. It includes a number of workshops, panel discussions and master classes scheduled in various venues across the Egyptian capital.

Under the helm of producer Mohamed Hefzy, the 41st edition of the CIFF is named after late Egyptian critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, longtime artistic director of the festival who passed away in July.

Irishman

 

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