A two-day forum with short film screenings, Medfest: Under the Skin took place 27 January at the Creativity Centre and on 28 January at Falaki Theatre, centering on the theme of mental health.
The first edition of Medfest describes itself as "a cinematic voyage into mental health."
It unites the art of film and the science of medicine, celebrating the place where they overlap as a fertile ground for intriguing discourse, and shining a spotlight on untapped potential.
“Medicine is a factual science, and films are the world of magic and imagination; they teach us how to feel,” organiser Mina El-Naggar said in opening words at the event.
El-Naggar is a clinical nutritionist, an actor and a filmmaker. His short film The Birthmark Man won the first prize in the 48 Hour Film Festival.
He added that medical conditions are an integral aspect of the human experience, so it’s inevitable that they find their way into film across different genres.
“Films allow us to know the patient and encourage empathy, something essential in the practice of medicine, which should go beyond diagnosing the patient,” geriatrician Khaled Ali added.
Medfest was born out of a conversation he had during Cairo’s Panorama of the European Film Festival between El-Naggar and Ali, who is a senior lecturer in geriatrics and stroke medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and editor of The Screening Room section of the Medical Humanities British Medical Journal online.
Ali is also a writer of film reviews with a focus on humane and medical aspects, contributing to top international film festivals including Cannes, Edinburgh and the Dubai Film Festival.
Upon discovering their mutual passion for film alongside their careers in medicine, the two men initiated the event in Egypt inspired by a similar one held in the UK, as a platform for professionals and enthusiasts alike across both disciplines.
Medfest also aims to propagate empathy and dissolve stigmas while raising awareness on the social impact of different illnesses, which aren’t always recognisable to the general public.
El-Naggar told Ahram Online that many of the films that came in response to their open call contained stigmas, which they didn’t wish to encourage, leading them to only select a couple of them. The other works were curated from films the organisers have seen before at festivals, and felt were relevant to the theme.
“Medfest is all kinds of medical subjects. We started with mental health, or the psychological aspect, and we will expand it, but there will always be a psychological reference. All health issues and illnesses are real drama from real life, and drama is always linked to the psychological aspect.”
The plan for the coming editions of Medfest is to have an open call for filmmakers in advance, and hopefully to offer grants or funds for production of relevant films.
Between two worlds
On the second day of Medfest at Falaki Theatre, seven Egyptian and international short films were screened throughout the evening, with discussion sessions held in between.
The discussions, moderated by Ali, invited to the stage panelists from different backgrounds – film and medicine – to field questions from the audience and delve into the films from the perspective of two seemingly divergent disciplines.
The many points where film and medicine can meet were also reflected in the diversity of the films.
Two films were screened under the theme of ‘Between two worlds’: the Egyptian film Compos Mentis and the UK film Outside, each tackling psychological questions in different ways.
Video art film Compos Mentis by Mohammad Shawky Hassan offered an artistic interpretation exploring the fine line between sanity and madness, and the social obligations that dictate what being normal is.
The film’s title is the Latin phrase meaning to have full control of one’s mind. The film has no linear narrative, but is suggestive of the themes it tackles. It is the voiceover that plays an important role in making it a psychological exploration.
The film opens with a woman in conversation with a philosopher around what makes a sound man and sound mind. We are presented with various stories during different parts of the film, such as a woman who has a condition of uncontrollable laughter, leading her to limit her social interactions to spare herself from the judgement of others. The auditory material also includes sound clips from the Egyptian film Be’r El-Herman, starring Soad Hosny as a schizophrenic seductress.
“The sound created a tension, and the dialogue from Be’r El-Herman (Well of Deprivation) seems to have been selected very carefully, it gave me a whole new context for the film,” Egyptian film director Amir Ramsis said in the discussion.
Ali pointed out how the film included many scenes from religious spaces, and scenes of holy rituals such as baptism.
“Perhaps this is linked to how some religious practices were often resorted to for curing people from psychological problems, such as El-Zar rituals,” Ali offered, as a means of deciphering the film’s conceptual language.
Dr Hani Shoeb, head of the psychological medicine section at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in England, highlighted the difference between restraint and suppression.
“Restraint is through obligations, which make boundaries for the individual, religion can be one of them, as well as social expectations,” he said.
