The film documents the artistic tour of 12 musicians over 100 days
“Away from the Nile.” What separates politics brings together 99 minutes of music
The film is directed by the Egyptian-American Sherif El Katsha.
Reuters
Without a travel visa or a passport, the music flowed in the course of the Nile, bringing together the artists of the river countries from the source to the estuary in one team playing a melody of love, coexistence and brotherhood in the documentary film “Away from the Nile” by the Egyptian-American director Sherif El Katsha.
The film documents, through 99 minutes, an artistic tour of a group of 12 musicians from Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea and Burundi, during 100 days across the United States within the framework of a project that has existed for years, aiming to shed light on the common ties between the peoples of the Nile to overcome political problems and existing differences. on the water.
And because its subject is different from many documentaries, the film came as a road trip that carries with it abundant feelings of pain, sadness, joy, disappointment and anger, with a lot of laughter emanating from spontaneous situations due to the different cultures, languages and temperaments of the team members.
The film reviewed the most accurate details of the artistic tour between a number of states, foremost of which are the intensive rehearsals before each concert, as the performances depend on unwritten songs and music derived from the local folklore of each country, which places the responsibility of each individual to introduce his cultural heritage and indoctrinate it to others.
Like the journey of life, the team’s journey was not devoid of disagreements that broke out from time to time and almost wrecked the journey or the exclusion of one of the members, but in the end the love of art was always dominant, and the audience’s interaction with the concerts was raindrops that poured down and extinguished any small fire that broke out here or there. .
Sherif Al-Qatsha, the director of the film, said that he knew about the project and got to know the team members in Aswan before the artistic tour began, and he was attracted to the nobility of the idea, so he decided to carry his cameras and accompany them.
He said, "I accompanied them for about four months, then continued filming for a year, while it took about two years to prepare and make the film, but this was due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic."
He added, "I traveled on my own without any assistants, and I was performing all the tasks alone, only, I was pressing the record button and letting the camera capture everything, and although it was not familiar to the team members at the beginning, over time they became very automatic without thinking about filming."
He pointed out that the most difficult stage of the film was the montage process, because the number of recording hours amounted to 400 hours, which were reduced to 99 minutes shown on the screen.
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