Conducted by Ahmed El-Saedi, the music director and principal conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the CineConcert featured dozens of musicians performing music from the well-known Egyptian and international films.

Taking place at the Plaza Theatre on Monday, scenes from the films were screened to the large audience gathered in an open air auditorium.

The scores presented included movies from a large cinematic repertoire spanning over a few decades. The concert featured titles such as an Egyptian cinema masterpiece, Henry Barakat's Lailat al-Qabd Ala Fatima (The Night They Arrested Fatima, 1984) in addition to international films: Space Odyssey, Out of Africa, Amadeus, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, The Pianist, The Mission, The Night of Arresting Fatma, and a few pieces from the Phantom of the Opera: Overture and Think of Me.

It has become a regular practice for El Gouna Film Festival to hold CineConcert as part of its creative activities.

First such experience was presented in El Gouna in 2018 (in the festival’s second edition) where a special tribute to Egyptian iconic director Youssef Chahine screened a documentary about the filmmaker to music from his films played live by the orchestra conducted by Hisham Gabr. The same tribute evening was then held at the Cairo Opera House earlier this year.

In 2020, during the festival’s 4th edition, special screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 film: 'The Kid' took place where live orchestra played original score of the film.

Performing live music scores by big orchestras to films screened in the concert hall has become a popular artistic practice, duly revived by El Gouna Film Festival.

Once again, the most recent CineConcert was warmly received by the audience reminiscing on the best known movies and their iconic scores.
 

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