Posts tagged with articles

Safar: Friday Forum

Safar Friday Forum session 1 - Photo ©Kevin Poolman 2012

Left-right: Philippe Aractingi; Khalid Abdalla; Hussein Fahmy; Brian Whitaker. Photo ©Kevin Poolman 2012

Safar: A Journey though Popular Arab Cinema: the Friday Forum, 21 September 2012, ICA.

“We are not going to allow it to happen,” Egyptian actor and megastar Hussein Fahmy told ICA’s Friday Forum. He was talking about the private prosecutions currently being brought by Islamists against actors for defaming Islam in movies, sometimes movies nearly a decade old. The comedic actor Adel Imam had been convicted for his roles in films like Terrorism and the Kebab (1993) and sentenced to a three-month jail term that was changed into a fine of $170 in July. Continue reading →

Safar: One-Zero

Still: One Zero, Dir. Kamla Abu Zekry, Egypt, 2009

Still: One Zero, Dir. Kamla Abu Zekry, Egypt, 2009

Long before the ousting of Mubarak, football, like the call to prayer, is an activity that brings Cairo’s teeming metropolis of nearly seven million to a standstill. Following the interwoven lives of eight characters, Kamla Abu Zekry’s compelling ensemble film One-Zero (Wahed-Sefr), takes place on the eve of the Egypt v Cameroon match in the 2008 Africa World Cup Final. Subtly addressing conflicts of class, gender and religion, this realistic and gripping movie foreshadows the social and political complexities that unfolded in Tahrir Square last year. Continue reading →

Safar: Bosta

Still: Bosta, Dir: Philippe Aractingi, 2005 Lebanon

Still: Bosta, Dir: Philippe Aractingi, 2005 Lebanon

There has been a long tradition in the West with musicals, either staged or filmed, that tackle complex subjects – Chicago by Bob Fossie is about female murderers and the rise of tabloid culture; Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim tells the story of serial killing and cannibalism, while The Scottsboro Boys addresses rape and racism in 1930s America. Few Arab musicals have ever attempted to tread the ground of Bosta, a film about the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war, exile, lost love and the generational struggle between tradition and modernity. Continue reading →

Safar: Watch Out for Zouzou

Still: Watch out for Zouzou, Dir. Hassan Al Imam, Egypt, 1971

Still: Watch out for Zouzou, Dir. Hassan Al Imam, Egypt, 1971

Just like today’s pressures on young men and women in the Middle East to conform to an acceptable Muslim lifestyle, there were similar social pressures in the 1970s for what some would say represents the polar opposite – towards secularism and liberalism. Those who didn’t agree with the compulsion to become modern and areligious were deemed out of the step with the times, feudal in outlook, excessively conservative, unimaginative and simply not progressive. Continue reading →

Post navigation
← Older posts