This year has been particularly rich in developments in Egyptian cinema. From the Oscar-nominated documentary The Square to the strong presence of other Egyptian films and filmmakers at international festivals, 2014 has seen a number of major achievements.
This year also marked the launch of Zawya art house and the return of the revamped Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF). On an individual level, the year saw release of Amr Salama's highly anticipated and censorship-challenging La Moakhza in Egyptian cinemas, Mohamed Khan's Factory Girl garnered much recognition, and the sequel Jews of Egypt: End of a Journey by Amir Ramses became the best selling film at Zawya.
On a mainstream note, Blue Elephant, a drama based on the novel of the same title by Ahmed Mourad, was a smash hit this summer, while El-Gezira II, a film that "placed all its bets on prosaic content to attract a large viewership" as Heba El-Sherif put it in her review for Ahram Online topped the Egyptian box office, garnering over LE13 million shortly after its release.
The latter movie starred Khaled Saleh, a beloved Egyptian actor who died just weeks before El-Gezira II hit the screens. Saleh is only one og the many remarkable actors and filmmakers who we lost in 2014. Their passing casts a dark shadow on a year otherwise filled with many noteworthy artistic realisations.
Below, Ahram Online takes a look at some of the highlights of 2014, a year which aimed and scored high.
Actors who passed away in 2014: From left to right: Khaled Saleh, Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Maaly Zayed -- among many other names.
2014's hot topic: The Square
The year began with the big buzz created by Oscar nominated documentary The Square which entered the year already carrying the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
In January 2014, the long anticipated Academy Awards’ announcement revealed that the film made it onto final list for Best Documentary award at 2014 Oscars. Though the film lost in the final draw, following the Oscars, the Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won an independent jury award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinare) and three Emmy Awards.
Hailed by Washington Post as “vibrant, lyrical… soaring testament to aesthetic and political expression," Ahram Online’s film critic, Yasmine Zohdi, described the film as “definitely an ambitious project… a great material to acquaint the world with the Egyptian revolution” however not sufficient to be considered a “revelation to an Egyptian who’s been part of the events.” Noujaim digitally released The Square on YouTube in Egypt.
Still from the Oscar nominated documentary The Square by the Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (Photo: still from The Square)
Egypt and beyond
Although The Square attracted the lion’s share of the attention, many other Egyptian filmmakers left their fingerprints on the international festival scene.
The 11th Dubai International Film Festival which runs at the beginning of December saw Egyptian talent well-represented. Amir Ramses's Cairo Time, Daoud Abdel-Sayed's Out of the Ordinary, Ahmed Ibrahim's short film Al-Matour, Ahmed Khaled's White Sugar and Omar El-Zohairy's The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 were among the films screened in and outside the competition. The Dubai festival also honoured Egyptian veteran actor Nour El-Sherif with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Abu Bakr Shawky and Aida El-Kashef were awarded grants from SANAD, the development and post-production fund of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival to support their movies, Yommedine and Ward No 3 respectively.
Yasmine Raees won the best actress award at Swedish Malmo Arab Film Festival for her role in Mohamed Khan's Factory Girl, a film which soon became Egypt's nomination for the official entry for the Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film 2015.
First-time director Sara Mourad won the first prize in the Arab Women Filmmakers section at the Baghdad International Film Festival for her short film Quietly, while Naji Ismail's Om Amira won Best Documentary at AanKorb: BBC Arabic Film and Documentary Festival held in London, and was screened at the 64th Berlinare. The latter festival included also: Arij: Scent of a Revolution by Viola Shafik, From Behind the Monument by Jasmina Metwaly and Shooting Stars Remind Me of Eavesdroppers by Maha Maamoun.
Yasmine Raees (centre) won the best actress award at Swedish Malmo Arab Film Festival for her role in Mohamed Khan's Factory Girl (Photo: still from the Factory Girl)
Egyptian directors, including the young, the established, and those who are no longer with us, were honoured in various ways internationally. The 16th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival paid special tribute to Egyptian and Arab filmmakers, among them Youssef Chahine, Shady Abdel-Salam, Salah Abou Seif, Tawfik Saleh, Mohamed Khan and Khairy Beshara.
2014 was also a good year for young Egyptian director Ahmed Abdalla whose Décor, a black and white feature starring Khaled Aboul-Naga, Horreya Farghaly and Maged El-Kedwany, was finally screened in Egypt during the Cairo International Film Festival. Most recently, the film was screened within the official competition of Tunisia's Carthage International Film Festival, alongside other Egyptian films: 678, La Moakhza, and Factory Girl. Abdalla was chosen Filmmaker-in-Focus at the Silver Edition of the Singapore Film Festival where all his four films were screened.
Egypt's presence at the international scene was only topped by Amr Waked’s role in Hollywood blockbuster Lucy, the newly released movie by French filmmaker Luc Besson. Film critic Yasser Moheb considered that for Waked, Lucy might be “a good chance to break into the international level.” Moheb noted also that apart from Omar Sharif, “not many Egyptian actors and filmmakers have tried their luck in the international arena. The list is quite short and efforts remain individual."
On the other hand, Egypt’s Khaled Aboul-Naga stars in Eyes of a Thief, a film which was Palestine's nomination for the Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film 2015.
Amr Waked in Lucy, the newly released movie by French filmmaker Luc Besson, starring carlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman and Min-sik Choi. (Photo: still from Lucy)
Noteworthy initiatives
With Egyptian filmmakers and actors garnering recognitions in the international arena, Egypt's local scene also witnessed important cinematic achievements. The beginning of the year saw opening of Wekalet Behna, a space in Alexandria dedicated to the independent film, visual arts and archiving Egypt's cinematic heritage.
In March, Misr International Films (MIF) opened its new Zawya initiative in the Odeon Cinema, bringing alternative and art house films to Cairo. Reviewing the art house's activities six months later, Rowan El-Shimi wrote: "Zawya has so far proven to be one of the few projects in the independent culture scene which attracts a strong following beyond Cairo's cultural crowd. Most of all, it has a massive opportunity for financial sustainability and an actual chance to compete in the commercially saturated film market."
Apart from regular screenings, Zawya joined the scene with a series of interesting retrospectives, featuring works by filmmakers such as Syrian Mohamed Malas and iconic Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. Those were topped with German director Wim Wender's retrospectives held during the 7th Panorama of the European Film, also an MIF brainchild.
Joining the retrospectives, in October the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Art Centre commemorated Charlie Chaplin and the Little Tramp character with screenings of chosen films by the filmmaker.
Second Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival held in January tailored a retrospective dedicated to the renowned actor Nour El-Sherif.
Cairo's art house cinema Zawya (Photos: Courtesy of Misr International Films)
Six weeks of film festivals
When thinking about film festivals, what we actually mean are six weeks of November and December, months which infused the scene with unprecedented cinematic dynamism, leaving little for the rest of the year.
One of the rare exceptions to the rule would be the aforementioned Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival and the 3rd Luxor African Film Festival, which took place in March.
Without further ado, let us move to the return of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) which opened on 9 November. Ahram Online film critic Wael Eskandar noted that “this year’s film festival had a different flavour and aimed at repositioning the event in Egypt's cultural map.” While recognising “a remarkable comeback [of 36th CIFF] in terms of the quality and range of films” Eskandar also pointed to the event’s “lack of organisational competency, with marked inefficiency and sometimes even carelessness.”
CIFF concluded on 18 November and one day later, the 7th Panorama of the European Film opened. The Panorama was immediately followed by the six-day-long 7th Cairo International Women’s Film Festival. The 18th edition of the Egyptian National Film Festival, which ran between 5 and 12 December and showcased Egyptian films produced in 2012 and 2013, closed the six-week long marathon of film festivals.
Though each was valuable in content and choices, the accumulation of film festivals became a challenge for many cinephiles. Moreover, all the festivals addressed regular viewers.
Let us hope that the positive wave that characterised Egyptian cinema in 2014 will expand and bring back a tailored film festival such as the Cairo International Children's Film Festival, which was organised annually for two decades before it was halted in 2011.
Posters from film festivals: from left to right: Cairo International Film Festival, Panorama of the European Film, Cairo International Women’s Film Festival, Egyptian National Film Festival.
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