Cairo Int’l Book Fair: Publishers’ Picks (VI)

Dina Ezzat , Thursday 23 Jan 2025

Ahead of the Cairo International Book Fair (24 January - 5 February), Ahram Online publishes a sequel to many reviews of new volumes that will be available during the top annual cultural event. These titles were offered and shared by the publishers themselves.

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Heya di Al-Hayah kama Rawaha Khairy Bishara l Sana’ Selim (This Is Life as told by Khariy Bishara to Sana’ Selim) by Shaimaa Selim, Al-Shorouk, pp 202

This is neither a memoir nor a book about the making of movies. It is more of a reflection on life as it has unfolded for film and soap opera director Khairy Bishara. He was born in the Delta in the 1940s to a Coptic but not conservative family, living the best part of his life in Cairo. He studied film-making in Poland, where he met the love of his life and his spouse, Monica.

The book is based on a set of conversations — maybe more sharing of recollections — with the writer Sana' Selim. It is not in chronological order and is not even thematically divided. This ‘flow’ goes in harmony with the book’s purpose, which Bishara shares in the dedication at the very beginning of the volume to his children: learn to live life as it comes.

This is precisely the story that Bishara is sharing – in life as in the making of cinema: it was also one thing after the other with no remorse and no compelling, or rather confining, targets to achieve. The real achievement that the reader believes Bishara was always focused on at the end of this 202-page volume is ‘to be’, ‘to try’, ‘to fail,’ and ‘to keep trying, dreaming, and living.’

Bishara shares the most profound moments of agony and resolve. He talks about love, intimacy, death, disappointments, fights and compromises with no inhibition. He talks about the top Egyptian actors and actresses he worked with, the film directors who taught and inspired him, and the world of film-making in Egypt from the 1960s, under Gamal Abdel-Nasser, to the late 1990s. He reflects on politics. He admired Nasser while being aware of his aversion to democracy and human rights violations. Meanwhile, he blamed Anwar Sadat and his open-door policy for what he calls a considerable cultural decline.

The book is highly anecdotal and very easy to read. Although it is not a book about Bishara’s films, it escorts the reader into the making of his films, which casts a particular light on these pictures.

The book adds to several titles published during the past decade or so by other filmmakers who began filmmaking after the 1967 military defeat.

 

Gamil Matar – Hekaiti ma’a Al-Sahafa (Gamil Matar – My story with Journalism) by Gamil Matar, Al-Massriyah Al-Lebenaniyah, pp 254

This is not just a personal recollection of a prominent writer who abandoned diplomacy for journalism – at least partially. It is also the story of the life of an upper-middle-class man in the heydays of socialism in Egypt under the rule of Gamal Abdel-Nasser. It is the story of what could arguably be described as the golden days of Egypt’s most prominent daily, Al-Ahram, under the lead of Mohamed Hassanein Heikal.

Heikal was arguably the most famous name in the history of Egyptian journalism, or at least one of the most renowned names, after ‘the July Revolution.’  It is also a close-up picture of the blurry lines between politics and journalism in Egypt since the rule of the July Revolution.

The 254-page volume is the story of a man who had dreams and ideas that got him to move across so many lanes of life, willingly at times and not so willingly at other times, always hoping to do what he believes in. Matar, who studied political science, graduated from Cairo University and joined the foreign service in the mid-1950s.

There is a lot to be told about the lifestyle of an upper-middle-class family, the social norms of the time, and what the press meant in the mid-20th century for Cairo residents. He has more stories about the diplomatic corridors in the 1950s and 1960s – more of which have been shared in a previous volume on his days as a diplomat.

He writes mostly about Al-Ahram, specifically about what started as the Centre for Palestinian and Zionist Studies (today’s Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies). He also writes about the first-ever Egyptian magazine of book reviews (Al-Kotob Weghat Nazar), the independent daily Al-Shorouk, and more.

The book sheds light on the world of diplomacy and journalism during Nasser and Sadat's days. Matar shares very few likes and alludes to some but not all of his dislikes. He observes neutrality, all he could, as a matter of principle. And he withholds the names of those he openly associates with wrongdoing. Above all, he acknowledges that journalism as a concept is one thing, and as practice is often another.

However, the essence of the Matar book is about two things: the coincidental side of life and the inevitable tough choices that one often has to make to chase one's dreams. 

Matar does not say which dreams were fulfilled and which were not. He unfolds the journey.

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