Bassem Magdy-Cairo
Despite the culmination of the Egyptian film "Damaged" by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh in three awards at the closing ceremony of the Cairo International Film Festival at its fortieth session, the chances of commercial success in Egypt seem very limited. His subject and lack of famous actors made him a technical film limited to a very limited number Of the showrooms in Cairo.
The film "Ward Sammoum", a participant in the competition of the Arab cinema festival, won three awards: the best Arab film worth $ 15 thousand, the Salah Abu Saif (special jury) and the United Nations Award for Population.
The film arrived at the Cairo Festival after a successful trip to the world festivals. It started with its first world premiere at the Rotterdam International Festival in the Netherlands, the new directors competition at the Sao Paulo Festival in Brazil and continued its journey to the Marrakech Film Festival. "African Film Festival" in Spain.
the story of the movie
The film, based on the novel "Poisonous Poisonous Poems" by novelist Ahmed Zaghloul al-Shaiti, The story of Tahia (an 28-year-old girl) pays special attention to her brother Sakr, a 22-year-old leather tanner in old Cairo, whose life turns upside down when she discovers that Saqr is seeking illegal immigration to Europe. This led to his imprisonment.
The film is based on independent, low-budget films that address an educated audience and do not rely on famous actors. Among its well-known actors, only the artist Mahmud Hamida, who was a guest of honor in acting and co-producer, .
The director managed to use the people of the tanneries and made them perform their real roles in front of the camera to give a very realistic picture of the lives of the tanneries, mixing the style of feature films based on the written script and documentaries documenting reality. The first documentary "Living Skin" on children working in tannery in 2011.
The artist Mahmoud Hamida said in a press statement that the place was filmed resembling the swamp, and is characterized by the cruel and random streets, which he described as "lanes with watercourses," and the remnants of workshops and factories and tanneries.
| Mahmoud Hamida with the film director Ahmed Fawzi Saleh at the Cairo Film Festival (Al Jazeera) |
Between the public and critics
According to Hossam Diab, who watched the film in his commercial show at Cairo's Zawya Cinema, the story, style and performance of the actors were good, but he needs more details in the dramatic plot to understand more relationships between the characters.
Ahmed Raslan, a filmmaker, said the script was weak. The film's events were too slow to make him boring, and the director focused on the details of the life of the tannery workers too much.
Critics also disagreed about the film. Critic Tariq al-Shennawi wrote about the film, describing the director as having a sense of form and an intellectual vision lacking in magic, adding that she would not find the story of her follow-up, but a visual vision contributed to her by director of photography Majid Nader, Each of his catches is like an optical equivalent that achieves a recurring dramatic mark.
"The story is not what matters in the film, but the situation that it expresses, which he described as a general poisoning in the environment surrounding the characters," that works and lives in the tanneries area and is exposed to the worst types of chemicals and pollution, "Essam Zakaria, .
Productive challenges
For years, Ahmed Fawzi Salih, his French producer and producer Mahmoud Hamida, have been collecting money from Arab and European support funds. They have had problems with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture's support agency, which has not provided the rest of the support for the film. .
"Although the film has received support from the National Film Center for 750,000 pounds four years ago, the obstacles and bureaucracy stand in front of the full disbursement," he said in a statement.
The film began to be distributed in Egypt in only one showroom (Zawya cinema) after the Cairo Festival. Other theaters were added in different parts of Cairo this week. The film is not expected to achieve large revenues due to its limited distribution, genre and lack of familiar faces. Which controls the revenue market in December before new Egyptian films take off during the holiday season.