Dozens of Egyptian artists, critics and intellectuals signed a statement rejecting the El Gouna Film Festival s plans to honor the actor Gerard Depardieu, opposing his links with Israel. The statement explains that the intention of honoring the French actor is a form of unacceptable normalization with Israel. Earlier this month the El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) had revealed that the French actor would receive this year’s Career Achievement Award. The same stance was taken by the artists in 2018 when the Cairo International Film Festival planned to honor French filmmaker Claude Lelouch. After being heavily criticised in Egypt for his support for Israel, the festival withdrew its invitation to Lelouch. The statement against honoring Depardieu demands the same action be taken by GFF, motivating the demand is the actor s strong ties with Israel. "Honoring Gerard Depardieu is in violation with the unanimous agreement of the General Assembly of the Federation of Art Unions and the majority of Egyptian artists which reject all forms of normalization with the Zionist enemy and its supporters. In addition [the actor] has been accused of rape and the case is still under investigation under French law," the statement reads. According to Reuters (2018), "Gerard Depardieu is being investigated by the Paris prosecutor over accusations of rape and sexual assault, a judicial source said. French media said the complaint had been lodged by a 22-year-old French actress." Dozens of names have already signed the petition. Among the names are filmmakers Ali Badrakhan, Mohamed Fadel, Arab Lotfi, Ahmed Atef, Dora, Tariq Al-Zarqani, Director of Photography Mostafa Ezz El-Din, director and screenwriter Yousry Mansour, actor and director Magdy Ebeid, writers Ahmed El Khamissy, Mohamed Gharib Gouda, Mustafa Al-Saeed, Maher El Shayal; among dozens of others. The signatures also include a few names of artists from Palestine, Lebanon and Tunisia. The 4th edition of El Gouna Film Festival is scheduled to take place from 23 to 31 October 2020. Gérard Depardieu was born in 1948 in Châteauroux, Indre, France. He started his acting career at a small travelling theatre in the 1970s and as his popularity started to grow he began working for cinema. In the 1980s and 1990s, he became a leading French actor, awarded a César as Best Actor for The Last Metro (1980) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), a film for which he also received an Oscar nomination. In 1996, he was distinguished by the highest French title of "Chevalier du Légion d Honneur". Away from his career in France, Depardieu has been always under the limelight for his strong ties with Israel with multiple and highly publicised visits to the country. Among his best known films is Hello Goodbye (2008) in which Depardieu stars with Fanny Ardant. The film follows a Jewish couple aiming to recover their Jewish roots. The film was set mostly in Israel. In 2016, Depardieu visited Israel with Ardant, this time starring in a play La Musica Second by Margeurite Duras. In 2017, Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani gave performances of Love Letters in Haifa and then in Tel Aviv. The show has seen several runs by many actors and directors on Broadway and off-Broadway. In 2018, the YNet News / Jewish World wrote: "actor Gerard Depardieu, singer Charles Aznavour and former President Nicolas Sarkozy are among some 300 well-known French people urging national action to counter a “new anti-Semitism” that they blame on rising Islamic radicalism." "The statement urged prominent Muslims to denounce anti-Jewish and anti-Christian references in the Quran as outdated so no believer can refer to a holy text to commit a crime " the article reads.

Renowned Egyptian actor Mahmoud Yassin died on Wednesday at the age of 79 afer a struggle with illness. Yassin, who was born in Port Said city in June 1941, graduated from the Faculty of Law at Cairo University in 1964. He joined the National Theatre in 1963, starting an illustrious acting career that spanned over 55 years. Yassin starred in tens of movies, plays and radio and TV series, dominating the lead role for most of the 1970s and 1980s. His memorable roles on the big screen included The Bullet is Still in My Pocket (1974); Where is My Mind (1974); Mouths and Rabbits (1977); Ascent to the Abyss (1978); and A Nose and Three Eyes (1972). His key works on TV included The Whirlpool (1972); Cairo and the People (1972); and Tomorrow the Flowers Will Blossom (1984). He was the recipient of multiple awards for excellence throughout his career.

The fourth day of the Malmö Arab Film Festival (8-13 October) was marked by the awards ceremony of the sixth edition of the MAFF Market Forum, where awards totalling over $100,000 were distributed among the participating film projects. Two projects by Egyptian directors were awarded grants to support the different stages of the production. The Lottery, a project directed by Karoline Kamel and produced by Mai Saad, won the Mosaic TV Award, amounting $10,000, for sound mixing services. The Lottery also won the Mosaic TV Award for editing, splitting a prize worth $10,000 with another Egyptian project titled The Life and Times of Omar Sharif, directed by Mark Lotfy and Axel Petersen and produced by Sigrid Helleday. Both projects were among the pitches in the Feature Films in Post-Production category, where a total of nine projects were given a variety of funds. The jury of the award included Tunisian actor and director Ali Sabri Belaid, Jordanian film producer Deema Azar and Syrian filmmaker Rosh Abdel-Fattah. The MAFF Market Forum also distributed awards in other film categories such as Feature Fiction Films in Development, Feature Documentaries in Development and Short Film Films in Development. The 10th Malmö Arab Film Festival takes place between 8 and 13 October with over 75 feature-length, short films and documentaries by Arab artists or focusing on the Arab region.

n only the first few hours of opening its doors, the Torathena (Our Heritage) handicrafts exhibition sponsored by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at New Cairo s International Exhibition Center witnessed a remarkable turnout from the public, rewarding the optimism of the event s exhibitors and organizer MSME Development Authority. Wood product industry worker Rania Salem said she was optimistic about her participation in the exhibit for the second time in a row, as her participation last year won her excellent sales, new customers and finalized contracts. Salem told Al-Masry Al-Youm that rent hadn t been an issue as she had set aside a certain budget, and succeeded in finding a suitable space within it. The rent was also not as high as in other exhibitions as the prices were subsidized, she added. “The president s interest in sponsoring the exhibition and inaugurating it himself was an important message that…reflected the state s keenness and serious interest in supporting owners of small enterprises, especially in light of the current circumstances,” Salem explained. Mai, a student in the third grade of high school, stands in front of her space at the exhibition, passionately informing customers about the quality of products by the “Sindawil Island Families” in Sohag. The Sindawil families, she said, decorate their fabrics with silver threads to produce products such as clothing, shoes and women s bags. The 2020 edition of the Torathen exhibition is the largest of its kind, comprising about 620 exhibitors, and held on an area of 10,000 meters, according to the Director of Exhibitions at the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises Development Authority Tariq Sabour. Sabour added to Al-Masry Al-Youm that the authority has offered services for the first time such as a QR code that provides visitors with information about exhibitors, their products, their stores and contact information. The authority offered subsidized rent fees, equivalent to 75 percent while the exhibitor pays 25 percent, he said.

Fans of Broadway will have to wait a little longer for shows to resume — until at least late May. Although an exact date for various performances to resume has yet to be determined, Broadway producers are now offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through May 30. “We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains again,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, which represents producers. The latest delay was endorsed by Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 51,000 theater actors and stage managers. “Today the Broadway League made the difficult but responsible decision to put the safety and health of their workers and audience first. This is a deeply painful time for everyone who depends on the arts for their livelihood,” said Mary McColl, executive director for Actors’ Equity Association. “We are at this moment because, seven months into the pandemic, our nation still lacks a coherent national strategy for masks and testing which could help bring the virus under control.” Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows — including 16 that were still scheduled to open — and scrambling the Tony Award schedule, with nominations this year set for Oct. 15. Producers, citing health and city authorities, previously extended the shutdown to June 7, then again to Sept. 6 and again to Jan. 3. The new timeframe may complicate a clutch of show that had planned to open in the spring, including “The Music Man,” “Flying Over Sunset,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Plaza Suite,” “American Buffalo” and “The Minutes.” Within hours of the announcement, the musical based on Michael Jackson, called “MJ,” pushed back its performances to September. The move by the Broadway League comes less than a month after the Metropolitan Opera said it will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September. In London, producer Cameron Mackintosh has said his company’s West End productions of “Hamilton,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Mary Poppins” and “Les Miserables” won’t reopen until 2021 due to the pandemic. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., has canceled most previously announced performances and events through the end of 2020, as has the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Broadway grossed $1.8 billion last season and attracted a record 15 million people. Producers and labor unions are discussing ways theaters can reopen safely.

The film Saheb Al-Maqam (The Enshrined Saint) addresses viewers fond of social dramas with a human and spiritual flavour. Unfortunately, these fans are not going to be satisfied The third feature film directed by Mohamad Gamal Al-Adl (known as Mando Al-Adl), Saheb Al-Maqam recounts the bright life of a family faced with a lack of ethics and human values. They find themselves in an increasingly violent and materialistic society where little importance is placed on morals. Young architect and businessman Yahya, played by Asser Yassin, decides to demolish a maqam (mausoleum) dedicated to a saint. He wants to do so in order to build a touristic site in its place. However, a series of developments begin to turn his life upside down. He undertakes to do a lot of charitable deeds as self-penance. He is guided by a mysterious lady called Roh, who has dedicated her life to charitable acts, with the aim of finding peace and serenity. Despite its traditional undertones, the film s idea is quite interesting. However, due to a simplistic and very flat approach in its realisation, these attractive aspects get lost as the action progresses. The plot quickly plunges into the overly explanatory. Based on a screenplay by the well-known writer and journalist Ibrahim Eissa, the film mixes social themes with far-fetched moral lessons, while leaving viewers wanting for more on both the artistic and dramatic levels. Approximately 50 minutes long, the film seeks to create a sense of suspense through superficial adventures, so much so that it is difficult to understand where it wants to take us. The main idea is filled with clichés and déjà vu. Two fairly well-known works immediately come to mind when watching this film: Al-Leila Al-Kebira (The Big Night), presenting the commemoration of a saint in a festive, spiritual and popular atmosphere, and Helm Aziz (Aziz s Dream), focusing on the idea of self-penance and atonement for sins as way of escaping a curse. Saheb Al-Maqam is a series of chained stories where several characters emerge, each carrying a plot. The author fell into the trap of presenting the events slowly and monotonously. As a result the film failed to defend or adequately shed light on many themes. Equally, the suspense runs out of steam as the whole work lacks depth and energy at all levels. On the production side, the director, who has already his own signature in the field, did not deliver his best work. Mando Al-Adl has already shot successful films including Al-Kibar and Al-Badla as well as successful television dramas including Al-Daeya (The Preacher) and Haret Al-Yahoud (The Jews Alley). However, in Saheb Al-Maqam, the director did not add anything that would really appeal to viewers. His shots are often enveloping, the camera direction well designed and the camera angles well-researched. However, it all lacks flavour. It is a bit disapointing putting into consideration the film s cast, which consists of superstars Asser Yassin, Youssra, Amina Khalil, among others, all of whom delivered clichéd performances, with neither major downsides nor nice surprises.

The management of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has revealed 10 of the most-anticipated films to take part in the festival s 42nd edition (2-10 December). Festival president Mohamed Hefzy revealed in a press release that “aside from the soon-to-be-announced world and international premieres and competition titles, the programming team is proud to include a collection of the most important and anticipated films of the year for the audience of Cairo, many of which are poised to be frontrunners of the award season after collecting critical praise in festivals in Venice, Toronto and Berlin earlier in the year." The films that will take part in the 42nd CIFF include: Nomadland This American film is the winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, making it the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Film. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Oscar winner Frances McDormand, Nomadland is a somber story of the resilient discards of an unforgiving economy, told with stirring power and grace. The Cairo International Film Festival will be presenting it in the official section, out of competition. Undine A German-French drama, Undine is winner of two awards at the Berlin Film Festival (Best Actress for lead star Paula Beer as well the FIPRESCI prize). During CIFF, the film will be screened out of competition. The latest work by Christian Petzold, who presided over the jury of the international competition of CIFF in its 38th edition, the film focuses on Undine who works as a historian lecturing on Berlin s urban development. But when the man she loves leaves her, an ancient myth catches up with her. Undine has to kill the man who betrays her and return to the water. Gaza Mon Amour A Palestinian film, winner of the NETPAC award (Best Asian Film) at the Toronto Film Festival, Gaza Mon Amour is one of the most prominent Arab films of 2020. The film will participate in CIFF s international competition. A co-production between France, Germany, Portugal and Palestine, and directed by Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser, the film premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival before winning the NETPAC award. The story revolves around a lonely elderly man that falls in love with a seamstress as he discovers an ancient statue that will change his life.The Disciple This Indian production won best screenplay and the FIPRESCI award at the Venice Film Festival, and will be featured out of competition. Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and produced by the Oscar-winning Alfonso Cuarón, the film’s story revolves around a young Indian boy who dedicates his life to following his dream of becoming a classical Indian singer. Mogul Mowgli A British-American production directed by Bassam Tariq and starring Riz Ahmed (also co-writer), the film won the FIPRESCI prize for the Panorama section The film follows the journey of a British Pakistani rapper who is on the cusp of his first world tour, but is struck down by an illness that threatens to derail his big break. The film will also screen in the official selection, out of competition. Exile A German-Belgium-Kosovo production, directed by Visar Morina, the film will screen within CIFF s Panorama section. The film won the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film at the arajevo Film Festival. Exile tells the story of a chemical engineer of foreign origin who feels discriminated against and bullied at work, plunging him into an identity crisis.Limbo A British film and one of the most prominent official selections of the Cannes Film Festival, Limbo premiered in Toronto, before winning the Youth Jury Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival earlier last month. The film will compete in the international competition of CIFF s 42nd edition. Directed by Ben Sharrock and starring Egyptian actor Amir Al-Masry, the film presents a different perspective on the problems of refugees in Europe. The Conference Directed by Ivan Tverdovskiy, at CIFF the film will be also competing in the international competition. A Russia-Estonia-UK-Italy co-production, the film received a special mention from the jury of Venice Days. Many years after a deadly terrorist siege in a Moscow theatre, survivor Natasha returns to the crime scene to hold a memorial evening, finally able to confront her survivor guilt and her estranged daughter and husband. New Order This distopian thriller is a winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. The film will screen in the official selection, out of competition. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, New Order s story is set during a wedding for members of a wealthy upper-class family, interrupted with the arrival of unexpected guests and turbulent events that overturn the country. Apples A production of Greece, Poland and Slovenia, and directed by Christos Nikou, the film will be screened within CIFF s International Panorama section and will have its MENA premiere after its debut as the opening film of the Orrizonti Competition of the Venice Film Festival. The film s story revolves around a mysterious worldwide pandemic that causes humans to suffer sudden amnesia, and is focused on a character who finds himself enrolled in a recovery programme designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities.

The Cairo Opera House is set to see its first book fair in early November, done in cooperation with the General Egyptian Book Authority, Minister of Culture Enas Abdel Dayem announced. She added that over 50 publishing houses will take part in the 10 day fair. The minister expressed her elation at the visitor turnout for the Alexandria Book Fair, which runs from October 1 to October 10, and said this all comes as part of the state’s efforts to support publishers and the book market. She explained that the Alexandria Book Fair‘s success was indicated by the ratio of its sales and visitor turnout, which confirms how confident readers are in the country’s cultural products. Book prices at the Alexandria exhibition were made accessible to everyone to encourage cultural equality, the minister added, with prices set from one pound for some books to less than five for others. And Dayem said that this exhibition serves as a breakthrough for others being planned in other parts of the country, such as the return of a huge book fair in Mansoura city after nearly 15 years of suspension.

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has set new dates for its 42nd edition, which will be held from 2 to 10 December instead of the previously planned 19 to 28 November. According to the CIFF s press release, the date adjustment was made in order to "ensure a safer and more successful festival, [following] health procedures and measures approved by the Egyptian Government and the World Health Organisation (WHO)." The third edition of Cairo Industry Day will be held from 4 to 7 December, while the activities of Cairo Film Connection will take place from 5 to 7 December.

In June, Mwazulu Diyabanza stood in a Paris museum next to a 19th century funerary post from central Africa, and berated France for taking it and tens of thousands of other art works from its former colonies. He and an associate prised the carved wooden ornament from its stand in the Quai Branly museum as a third man live-streamed the act on social media. Diyabanza was stopped by a security guard as he made for the exit. “My mother used to tell me that when the Europeans arrived, they pillaged these artifacts, they pillaged our patrimony,” he told Reuters. “We’re in a fight to recover our (cultural) wealth.” A Congolese who has lived in France for 20 years, Diyabanza belongs to a pan-African movement that is pressing France to return those artifacts and make reparations for acts of slavery. He appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted theft. Prosecutors demanded a fine, and a verdict is due on Oct 14. Diyabanza’s case has led to renewed scrutiny of France’s history in a year in which anti-racism protests have forced developed nations to re-examine how they remember their colonial pasts. Diyabanza, who faces a second theft charge for removing an artifact from a Marseille museum and taking it to a police station, considers his actions politically justified. “Who is the real thief in this story? The thief is he who takes something fraudulently. I’m the legitimate inheritor,” he said. A huge part of Africa’s cultural heritage is on display in Europe. The Quai Branly Museum in Paris holds some 70,000 African objects, with London’s British Museum holding thousands more, French art historian Benedicte Savoy told Reuters in 2018. That year, Savoy co-authored a report with Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr recommending the widespread return of cultural artifacts removed from Africa, identifying 46,000 objects that would qualify at the Quai Branly. The museum declined to comment for this article. Also in 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron said “African heritage can’t just be in European private collections and museums”. Diyabanza wholeheartedly agrees. “People see beautiful buildings. We hear the cries of women and children,” he said. So far, however, records indicate that fewer than 30 African artifacts in French collections have been handed back.

Acclaimed Egyptian composer and pianist Omar Khairat will give a performance at the Cairo Opera House on Tuesday, October 20 at 8:30 pm. The Ministry of Culture has set up two open-air theaters at the Cairo Opera House in July to allow cultural events to resume while maintaining social distancing precautions. However, it plans to keep the Cairo Opera House’s main hall closed until further notice. Khairat’s last performance was on September 29 at Al-Manara theater’s open-air stage located in New Cairo. Khairat is the founder and conductor of the Omar Khairat Band. He was born in Cairo and raised in a family of musicians. His uncle, Abou-Bakr Khairat, is a great Egyptian composer of classical music, part of the first generation of such composers in Egypt. An architect by profession, About-Bakr Khairat studied privately in Paris and founded the Cairo Conservatoire, which is regarded as the premier music conservatory in Egypt. Omar Khairat, About-Bakr Khairat’s nephew, entered the observatory in 1959, studied piano with Italian Maestro Vincenzo Carro, and took courses in music theory and composition at Trinity College in England. Khairat, whose music is said to bridge the divide between contemporary Egyptian and Western genres, has composed a number of works, including The Magic Perfumes (1989) and Arabic Rhapsody (1992). His compositions have been featured in various movies and TV shows and he has performed at the Cairo Opera House a number of times.

The organisers of El-Gouna Film Festival (GFF) have revealed the poster for the event s 4th edition, which is scheduled to take place in October 2020 in the Red Sea resort town of El-Gouna. Following the theme The Culture of Dreams, the festival will be aligned with the opening of the new Gouna Conference and Culture Centre. According to the GFF s official press release, "the poster is inspired by the design of the Gouna Conference and Culture Centre, which features an elegant series of barrel vaults enclosing the auditorium with a shaded perimeter layer where the inside and outside merge, creating an atmosphere of transcendent inspiration." "For this edition, the visuals in the posters represent the wide spectrum of voices and talents that bring the MENA region’s dreams to life in the form of inspired artistic works." One of the youngest major festivals in Egypt, the GFF was founded by businessman Naguib Sawiris and co-founded by Amr Mansy and actress Boushra, who also serves as the event s COO. The festival s director is Intishal El-Timimi. The annual festival is held in a luxurious Red Sea resort town established by businessman Samih Sawiris. The fourth edition of the El-Gouna Film Festival, which will take place from 23 to 31 October, will hold many of its activities at outdoor venues, including the opening and closing ceremonies, amid the “challenging circumstances” of the coronavirus pandemic. To ensure social distancing, the festival will allow “less than half of the total capacity” at events inside cinemas, the festival organisers revealed. The festival will also enhance its virtual capabilities to allow greater online participation.

Having suspended its activities in March, the African Cinema Club (ACC) will resume film screenings and discussions starting Saturday 3 October at 7pm at the Artistic Creativity Centre located at the Cairo Opera grounds. The first film in the Club s line-up is the award-winning film You Will Die at Twenty by Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, who will be present during the screening. With a script by Yousef Ibrahim, the film is set in a Sudanese village in the 1960s, where Sufi beliefs are central to the villagers’ lives, and which follows the life of young protagonist Muzamel, after a prophecy determines that he will die at the age of 20. The film won the Golden Star for Best Narrative Film at the Gouna Film Festival. The film also made headlines at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017, where it participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market. It then won the Luigi De Laurentiis Award at the Venice Film Festival (2019). Sudanese filmmaker Abu Alala was born and raised in the UAE and studied media at the United Arab Emirates University. Abu Alala previously directed and produced a number of short films, some of which took part in film festivals, including Coffee and Orange (2004), Feathers of the Birds (2005), Tina (2009), and His Studio (2012). He is currently head of the programming committee of the Sudan Independent Film Festival. Transit Films is a Cairo-based production company established by producer Hossam Elouan, and specialises in the production of Egyptian and Arab art-house films.The film was also shown at the 9th edition of the Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF), which closed on 11 March, a day ahead of schedule, with no closing ceremony due to the general shutdown of all cultural activities due to the spread of coronavirus. Prior to that, the film was screened in October at the Artistic Creativity Centre, as the ACC s activities. The African Cinema Club was launched in January 2017 in cooperation between the Luxor African Film Festival and the Cultural Development Fund. Throughout the past years, the Club has held numerous film screenings followed by discussions at the Artistic Creativity Centre. It has also expanded its activities to other locations in Cairo and Alexandria. Headed by Sayed Fouad, the Club has suspended all screenings in March. It is worth noting that African cinema has been seeing a comeback in recent decades with a visible presence in international festivals and European cinema competitions. Founded in 2012, the festival is organised by Independent Shabab Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, supported by the Egyptian ministries of Culture, Tourism, Foreign Affairs & Youth and in collaboration with Luxor Governorate. The LAFF is the only festival dedicated uniquely to the continent s films in Egypt. Apart from its regular editions, and holding the year-long Club, the festival holds numerous additional events dedicated to African cinema and the promotion of its riches and filmmakers. In October 2019, a special evening celebrating the Luxor African Film Festival was organised as part of the Panora Cinema segment of the Malmö Arab Film Festival. The evening celebrated the Egyptian festival, which, according to the MAFF organisers, "made great strides and became one of the most important festivals specialised in African cinema."

Renowned Egyptian director Khaled Galal and a large cast from the Artistic Creativity Centre will continue performing their successful play Cinema Masr at the Cairo Opera House s Hanager Open Air Theatre for three successive nights starting Monday. The play, which has seen huge success among audiences and critics, has been staged for dozens of nights since its premier last summer, with many first-class artists attending and some being honoured during the show. Cinema Masr, whose cast includes 65 students presenting on stage around 40 scenes from memorable Egyptian films in a dramatic context created by the director, is expected to show in Alexandria in October. Khaled Galal is head of the Actor s Studio, operating under the Artistic Creativity Centre, which he also manages as well as heading the Cultural Production Affairs Sector. Under Galal, during the past two decades, hundreds of actors enrolled at the studio have graduated and entered the theatre and film scene, with its most successful play being Qahwa Sada (Black Coffee), which premiered in 2008 and whose cast have become some of the most popular and active actors in Egypt. Amid strict safety measures to avoid spreading Covid-19, Egypt resumed cultural activities in July with most public events held at outdoor venues.

Bullets & Bread by Egyptian director Mohamed Hammad, produced by Kholoud Saad and Mohamed Hefzy (Film Clinic, Egypt), has been announced as one of the 12 winners of the Red Sea Lodge Award for an Arab Project. Initiated by the Red Sea International Film Festival, the Lodge offers grants in two categories: the Red Sea Lodge Award for a Saudi Project and the Red Sea Lodge Award for an Arab Project, with each category offering a total of $500,000 to six winners. According to the brief posted by the festival, "Bullets & Bread is about Youssef, a conscript serving his compulsory military service on the Egyptian eastern desert border and who dreams of becoming a writer. Awad is a dangerous bandit from one of those tribes roaming that remote desert region, who dreams of providing a better life for his family in Cairo. Their paths were not meant to cross, but a true friendship will grow between them." Mohamed Hammad is best known for Withered Green (2016), his debut feature as a director, which he also wrote. The film s world premiere was at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present. Withered Green won the Horus Award (Best Actress, Best Director) and 2nd Production Award at the Cairo National Festival for Egyptian Cinema (2018); the Muhr Award for Best Director at the Dubai International Film Festival (2016); and the Golden Palm Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Mexico International Film Festival (2017). Prior to Withered Green, Hammad wrote, produced, and directed the short film Central (2008). In 2010, he produced and directed the short film Pale Red, which took part in many international festivals, receiving several awards. Hammad was chosen as a jury member at the Cairo International Film Festival (2016) and was a jury member at the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts (2014).Among the other winners of the Red Sea Lodge for Arab Projects were Scheherazade Goes Silent, directed by Amira Diab; Inchalla A Boy, directed by Amjad Alrasheed; The Arabic Interpreter, directed by Ali Kareem; The Basement Notes, directed by Hadi Ghandour; and I Am Arzé, directed by Mira Shaib. The festival also granted six films the Red Sea Lodge Production Award for a Saudi Project. They include: Basma, written by Fatima Al-Banawi and directed by Ali Alsumayin; Practicing Polygamy, directed by Malak Qouta; Four Acts of Disruption, directed by Hussam AlHulwah; When The Star Goes Down, directed by Mohammed Salman; Sharshaf, directed by Hind Alfahhad; and Hejj to Disney, directed by Maha Al-Saati. In parallel, the jury selected director Al-Saati’s Hejj to Disney for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab talent development scheme, and for development programmes held by the Malmo Arab Film Festival (Sweden) and El-Gouna Film Festival (Egypt). Saudi director Al-Saati was chosen to participate in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association residency program in 2021. The jury choosing projects for the Red Sea Lodge: Script & Feature lab consisted of Russian producer and actress Nadia Turincev, German director, writer, and production manager Meinolf Zurhorst, and Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah. The grants are part of the Red Sea International Film Festival, whose inaugural audition was scheduled to take place between 12 and 21 March 2020, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organisers then revealed that the inaugural audition of the festival will take place in 2021.

Acclaimed Egyptian composer and pianist Omar Khairat will perform at the Al-Manara Theater on Tuesday, September 29 at 8:30 pm. The upcoming event is the third of a series of concerts that the musician is holding during September. The first two concerts took place on September 10 and 11 at the same open-air stage located in New Cairo. Khairat is the founder and conductor of the Omar Khairat Band. He was born in Cairo and raised in a family of musicians. His uncle, Abou-Bakr Khairat, is a great Egyptian composer of classical music, part of the first generation of such composers in Egypt. An architect by profession, About-Bakr Khairat studied privately in Paris and founded the Cairo Conservatoire, which is regarded as the premier music conservatory in Egypt. Omar Khairat, About-Bakr Khairat’s nephew, entered the observatory in 1959, studied piano with Italian Maestro Vincenzo Carro, and took courses in music theory and composition at Trinity College in England. Khairat, whose music is said to bridge the divide between contemporary Egyptian and Western genres, has composed a number of works, including The Magic Perfumes (1989) and Arabic Rhapsody (1992). His compositions have been featured in various movies and TV shows and he has performed at the Cairo Opera House a number of times.

Prominent Egyptian singer Angham is gearing up for a live performance in Egypt on Friday 9 October at the Open Theater of Al-Manara Center, the first after long months of absence due to the COVID-19 lockdown. "I miss you," Angham told her fans, expressing happiness to be returning to live performance, which will kick off in Jeddah on 24 September amid the Saudi Kingdom s celebrations of its National Day. Angham, who trended this month with her summer single Bahebbak W-Bartahlak, will introduce some of her memorable love songs in addition to some traditional covers at the concert, whose ticket prices vary between EGP 600 and EGP 1,500. Angham is expected to introduce a selection of her hits from her over two-dozen albums, including Omry Maak, Hala Khasa Geddan, Ya Retak Fahemny, Ben Elbenen, Albak, Baatly Nazra, Sidi Wisalak, and many other well-known hits. Born in 1972, Angham, who graduated from the Cairo Conservatory, is considered one of the best female voices in Arab music today. She launched her career alongside her well-known musician father Mohamed Ali Soliman in the late 1980s, before embarking on her own independent path.

Quirky comedy "Schitt s Creek," media family saga "Succession," and dystopian drama "Watchmen" dominated the Emmy Awards on Sunday in a show where the coronavirus pandemic meant most celebrities took part from their sofas and backyards dressed in a variety of gowns, hoodies and sleepwear. "Hello, and welcome to the PandEmmys!," said Jimmy Kimmel, opening the show, which had multiple skits and jokes about life under lockdown. HBO s "Succession," the wickedly juicy tale of a fractious media family, was named best drama series, while Jeremy Strong won best actor for his role as a downtrodden son. "Succession" also won for writing and directing. The biggest shock of the night came when former Disney Channel actress Zendaya, 24, was named best drama actress for playing a teen drug addict in HBO s "Euphoria," beating presumed favorites Laura Linney ("Ozark") and Jennifer Aniston ("The Morning Show.") Schitt s Creek," a sleeper hit on the small Pop TV network about a wealthy family that is forced to live in a rundown motel, won seven Emmys, including best comedy series and acting awards for Canadian stars Catherine O Hara, Eugene Levy, Daniel Levy and Annie Murphy. It was the first time in the Emmy Awards 72 years that a comedy won all seven categories in the same year, organizers said. HBO s alternative-reality show "Watchmen," infused with racial themes, won for best limited series, while actress Regina King won for her performance as the show s kick-ass police detective and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II took best supporting actor. "Watchmen" also won for writing. Creator Damon Lindelof dedicated the Emmy to the victims and survivors of the 1921 massacre of the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which partly inspired the series. The coronavirus pandemic meant no red carpet and no physical audience for the show, which was broadcast live on ABC. Instead, producers sent camera kits and microphones to all the nominees, scattered in 125 places around the world, who chose how and where they wanted to be seen.

Egypt s culture ministry is launching a performance entitled Laila Fi Hob Mahmoud Reda ("A Night For the Love of Mahmoud Reda") at the Balloon Theatre, starting Sunday for one week. The performance is designed to celebrate the work of pioneer Egyptian folkloric dance icon Mahmoud Reda, founder of Egypt’s Reda Troupe, who passed away in July at the age of 89. Laila Fi Hob Mahmoud Reda is directed by Adel Abdu, accompanied with the orchestra of conductor Hisham Nabawy, will feature singers Mohamed El-Helw and Mai Farouk in Wahed Mennena ("One of Us"), a song written by Medhat El-Adl and composed by Salah El-Sharnouby. The show also include an exclusive video speech for Reda, an act by Mido Adel and a documentary by journalist Ayman El-Hakim with the night presented by Bosy Shalaby. Born in 1931, Reda, who participated as an athlete in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, founded Reda Troupe in 1959, finding wide success that led to official adoption by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 1961, with the troupe performing in all over the country and in many important venues abroad. Reda Troupe collaborated with numerous musicians and starred in many films like Agazet Nos Al-Sanah in 1961, directed by his brother Ali Reda, in addition to other films like Gharam fi Al-Karnak in 1967 and Harami El-Waraqa in 1970. Mahmoud Reda worked with the troupe until he retired in 1990, although he continued to supervise it artistically. Egypt resumed public culture activities in July as part of the country s cautious reopening following the Covid-19 lockdown, with all events held under strict measures that include social distancing, obligatory face masks, and sanitising.

Afrah Al-Qobba (Wedding Song), a 1981 novel by Egyptian Nobel Prize winning Naguib Mahfouz continues to attract the theatre and film directors. This polyphonic novel has been succesfully adapted for the small screen in 2016, through television series screened during Ramadan, directed by Mohamed Yassine with script by Nashwa Zayed. This time the theatre director Youssef El-Mansour offers his take of the novel with performances that took place at Cairo s Al-Ayem theater. Presented by the Youth Theatre troupe, the play has premiered in January 2020 and has returned to the stages in August. The story of Wedding Song is about the life of a troupe in a theater in the Al-Qobba neighborhood (hence Arabic of the book Afrah Al Qobba which literary means Weddings of the Qobba) neighborhood. Sarhan, the producer and owner of the fictitious theater, offers the actors a new text written by Abbas, son of the prompter, Karam Younes. The actors discover that the play they are about to perform traces their own lives on stage as it reveal their secrets, their intimate relationships and their scandals. In the play Abbas questions the deeds and morals of all members of the troup including his own parents (Halima and Younes). He even suggests that he killed his wife Taheya, the former lover of a comedian from the Tarek Ramadan troupe. In his novel Naguib Mahfouz underlines the degradation of moral values ​​in Egyptian society between 1948 and 1970. He especially denounces the policy of economic openness and nepotism under Sadat. Mahfouz s work did not recieve much success at the time of its publishing. Not only the topic was challenging for the political environment but also the work introduced a new style for the Egyptian readers whereas the same story is told, from four different points of view: the actor Tarek Ramadan, the playwright Abbas Karam Younes, the prompter Karam Younes and his wife Halima. In the TV series that aired during Ramadan four years ago, Mahfouz s story was extended, many characters have been added, offering great richness to the work, so as to allow the events to fil the 30 episodes aired throughout one month. The TV series gave new impetus to Mahfouz s text. “It was a big challenge for me to do a theatrical adaptation of this novel, especially after the success of the series. The comparison is inevitable. But I believe that this novel carries elements that are suitable for the theatrical form. The story itself takes place in a theater, so it s a privilege to present it on stage. The suspense of Taheya s death and the secrets that unfold require theatrical focus. To better satisfy the audience, it is better to present them with answers and solve the intrigue and suspense in one evening," comments Youssef El-Mansour. In fact, in the TV series several characters were developed. For example, Taheya, Tarek’s former lover and Abbas’s wife, wanted to break away from the surrounding of the reality by playing different roles on the stage. Through performing, she defies her fate, having been born in a destitute environment where debauchery reigns. In the original work, description of Taheya does not exceed a few sentences, while in the theatre she takes the lion s share of the script. She is described as a young girl who left her hometown during the war and lost her younger sister to the bombings. The director portrays her as a loving woman who gives herself entirely to her beloved, Tarek, yet due to a series of misunderstandings between the two, the couple splits up. Unlike the television series, the theatrical version opted for a compact dramatic performance based on the novel s four main characters. El-Mansour even deleted a few characters and added two others capable of adding a light comic spirit. "I wanted to keep the polyphony of the novel and I wanted to respect the main characters and their points of view," the director explains. The scenographer Amr Al-Ashraf created a rather sober entourage, yet rich in symbols. With lights stressing on chiaroscuro, the theater without curtains easily becomes the home of Karam Younes. Add to that the elaborate choreography by Monadel Antar. Instead of the narrative stories, known to the novel and the television opera, the director has developed new speeches and monologues, and through them introduced the characters transformations, moving from one state of mind to another. The actors excel at embodying these changes. Aging Karam Younes recounts his debut in the theater and his love at first sight for Halima. In one scene, he takes off his coat and moves on to another phase of his life, standing face to face with his mother, a low-level prostitute. Then he changes to the role of the deceived husband, then to that of a game leader in his house, then to that of the demanding father. Same regarding Tarek Ramadan who moves from being the lover to the jealous man, to the confused man, etc. However, this rule of adopting the many changes is not that obvious in case of the Halima and Abbas. The latter appears as a child, then as a teenager and then as a young man, each time played by a different actor. Halima is also played by two actresses: one in her youth and the other in her middle age. The play of the theater in the theater adds unique rhythm to the play. In addition, it allows the director to avoid a classic narrative approach. Halima and Karam, seated among the audience, intervene directly on stage and present their views on their son s story. An unexpected ending After presenting the different points of view, in order to solve the mystery of the death of Taheya, the director chooses a heartbreaking ending. “By juxtaposing the points of view of the characters, Naguib Mahfouz left us hungry with an open ending. He didn t want to decide: either Taheya s death was caused by typhoid, or she was killed by her husband. In the television series, everything is revealed at the end. I also wanted to answer the audience s questions and come up with a satisfying ending," the director explains. With that, the final scene in the play unveils the confession of the manipulations of all the comedians, including Sarhan, the owner of the theater, who has orchestrated many events of the troupe of Al-Qobba theatre. Through his actions, Sarhan wants to get rid of all the people who know his weaknesses, as he talks about his plot and being the only triumphant person in theatre and one who can create a new troupe.

The makers of the series “Eswed Fateh” (Light Black) announced that while the series will not be broadcasted on television until November, it will be available via MBC s Shahid online streaming platform starting September 27. Eswed Fateh was scheduled to be released during Ramadan of this year, but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The final scenes of the show were filmed in Lebanon at the beginning of September, after both Beirut s August 4 explosion and the virus put a halt on production. Egyptian actors in the series have returned to Egypt, while director Karim al-Adl remains in Lebanon, putting finishing touches on the series before its internet debut. The storyline of the series is about a businesswoman whose life is turned upside down after her husband s betrayal. She finds herself struggling amid disloyalty and hostility from her close friends and family due to her husband s actions, prompting her to seek revenge. Eswed Fateh is starring Haifa Wehbe, Rojina, Ahmed Fahmy, and Mutasim al-Nahar. It is written by Amin Gamal and directed by Adl.