El Gouna Film Festival
Friday evening took place the opening ceremony of the first edition of the El Gouna Film Festival which takes place from September 22 to 29, 2017.
A fortified festival since the announcement of its creation a few months ago, and especially since the launch reception given during from the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
As soon as the guests began to flock to El Gounathis very high standing seaside resort, located on the Red Sea in Egypt.
With the exception of a different who, even before the start of the ceremony, opposed Egyptian journalists and the festival management, the opening ceremony went well.
Indeed, management has chosen to exclude journalists from the inaugural festivities. Very rare were those who had been able to have the famous sesame allowing access to this ceremony that everyone was impatiently awaiting. The journalists were all the more disappointed and angry, since they were all caught by surprise. They had arrived in El Gouna with tuxedo and costumes and learned at the last minute that they were invited to follow the course of the ceremony through a live screening in a movie theater!
Egyptian journalists expressed their anger by boycotting the press dinner organized in their honor and by having their union published a press release to denounce such acts.
Several hundred international and Egyptian personalities made the trip to attend this first edition of this new festival which highlights cinema to humanitarian resonance. Among them, the American actors Dylan McDermott and Michael Madsen, the French actress Emmanuelle Béart, the Tunisian women Hend Sabry And Latifa Arfaoui, the Egyptians Farouk El Fishawy, Yosra, Lebleba, Yosry Nasrallah, Bassem Samra and many others.
From 6 p.m. the guests began to flock according to a predetermined schedule to ensure a certain fluidity. Each of them therefore arrives on the red carpet, takes place in front of the Wall of Fame, is photographed and then advances either to one of the three media trays accredited for the ceremony (the ceremony was broadcast live on the television channel on EN and on the Internet), or will find the other guests directly.
Overall, all were very elegant, favoring simplicity and sobriety.
The actual opening ceremony began with a supposed comic sketch but which sincerely did not make many people laugh apart from the actor himself. A nice cocktail of famous film songs followed, both Arab and international.
A nice cocktail of famous film songs
After the speeches of the two Sawiris brothers, founders and providers of funds from the festival, and Intishal Al Timimi, the director, for which the festival aims to be a bridge between Egyptian culture and international culture to exchange ideas, interests and dreams, a tribute was paid to the great Egyptian star Adel Imam. A video in which several artists said a few words in the Zaim was projected. Then the latter received from the hands of the actress Yosra a prize for her entire career and her contribution to the Arab cinema for fifty years.
Tribute to Adel Imam at the El Gouna Film Festival
A tribute was also paid to the famous Lebanese film critic Ibrahim Al-Aris.
He expressed his joy, first of all because he thinks that the El Gouna festival will have a bright future in view of the quality films that have been selected and guest people, then because this festival thought, through his person, to pay tribute to the profession of film critic, a profession which gives a lot to the cinema but which is always left in the shade. Finally, he said that as soon as he arrived in El Gouna, he had the impression that Talaat Harb was by his side and that he had a dream, that this pretty city which is in relation to cinema and culture turns into a real cinematographic city with even a slogan “El Gouna Magnouna Bi 7ob il cinema” (El Gouna Folle of the love of cinema). To conclude, he expressed the wishes that in the future we find in El Gouna a future museum of cinema, studios and sets where filmmakers from around the world would come to shoot, a film school and that the independent cinema which is taking off in Egypt thanks to young talented filmmakers can grow and evolve even more.
Tribute to Ibrahim Al-Aris at the El Gouna Film Festival
After the tributes, presentation of the members of the juries of the three short films, fiction feature films and documentary feature films. These members were chosen from various nationalities and specialties.
Members of the short films
The actress, producer, director and Tunisian author Annissa Daoud is a member of the short films jury. Annissa Daoud notably co -produced with Lotfi Achour, the short film Wool on the back (Allocated) which was selected in competition for the Palme d’or from the short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and co-produced the short film The rest is man’s work which was selected in official competition at the Venice Festival in 2016 and which won the 2017 Jury Swhary TV Jury Prize.
Then it was the turn of the film team Sheikh Jackson, Directed by Amr Salama and co-produced by Mohamed Hefzyto go on stage for a presentation before its projection.
The film of the film “Sheikh Jackson” at the El Gouna Film Festival
This feature film which was chosen to open the festival tells the tightness of a young imam, embodied by the two actors Ahmed Malek (young) and Ahmed El Feshawy (adult). The story begins on the day of the death of singer Mickael Jackson. Then, little by little, we understand the link between the singer and the imam.
The film Sheikh Jackson, opening film of the El Gouna Film Festival
The film is interesting and topical in our post -revolution countries, with the arrival or hatching of Islamists. The young imam is indeed torn between a “normal” life with his pleasures and his “perversions” embodied by his own father (Maged El Kedwany) or the life of Salafiste, supposed to between God, embodied by his uncle (Mahmoud El Bezawy).
The director knew how to describe the two lifestyles without falling into caricature or judgment.
The two actors, Ahmed Malek and Maged El Kedwany were sublime.
Good luck to this new festival!
Neïla Driss
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