Amal Jamal
"We have long been late in honoring Youssef Chahine in Eastern Europe, but this grand celebration, which provides an overview of the works of one of the most prominent filmmakers in the Arab world and Africa, is undoubtedly coming to compensate for this delay in a way worthy of Youssef Chahine." Karel Ouch, the director of the 54-year-old Karlovy Vary Festival, which took place from June 28 to July 6, spoke about the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.
"We are pleased to pay this debt in honor of an exceptional artist and human being, who has strong political views and positions, as well as significant contributions to Arab cinema."
The prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival features an overview of the cinema of one of the greatest directors in Africa and the Middle East. It is the most important festival in Eastern and Central Europe, 135 km from Prague, the third most beautiful city in the world.
About two hundred films from the world's finest and most beautiful films were screened, including five for the first time in Karlovy Vary and three for English subtitles. to her.
The films were varied in their artistic and intellectual content, and varied in the history of their production between the 1950s and 1980s, during which the Western viewer - who did not know anything about the first phase of Shaheen's journey - could make comparisons and realize the evolution of the director of "The Earth" Western and foreign critics with films such as "The Iron Door," "Goodbye Bonaparte," "The Sixth Day," and "New York," while not knowing his first films, comedy fantasy, and even social drama.
From this perspective, the vision of the festival and the ambitious program came to an end. At the same time, the journey of the renovated film shows has been completed. Since the middle of last year, a number of these films have toured several cities around the world to redefine the Shahin cinema, especially for younger generations.
These 11 films have been recently restored thanks to the efforts of the Egyptian International Film Company, with the support of other institutions including French Cinematheque and Senetica de Bologna. They are: Baba Amine 1950, Conflict in the Valley 1954, Desert Devil 1954, Habiby 1957, Wadah Hobak 1975, Bab al-Hadid 1958, Nasir Salah al-Din 1963, Dawn of a New Day 1964, The Return of the Lost Son 1976, Alexandria Les 1978, "Sixth day 1986.
In addition, a two-hour discussion evening was held on the different aspects of the Shahin Cinema, which has been considered by many of the most important filmmakers in the Arab world and Africa for over half a century. The participants' discussions ranged from his films to his life, political views and aesthetics. .
Marian Khoury, the daughter of Shaheen's sister, spoke about his interest in cinema from an early age. He used to accompany his grandmother to the cinema in Alexandria and the sacrifices of his family "so that he has the opportunity to strengthen and mature his interests and skills."
"The work of Shaheen can be divided into three stages, the first of which is dealing with the transformation of the Egyptian state," said Joseph Fahim, the Egyptian critic and programmer responsible for the honor file, who presented an interesting study entitled " And then the beginning of questioning the new system and accountability, and finally try to Shaheen to identify itself in relation to this system.
"Just as Shaheen's early films tried to embrace the American novel and the American dream, he was at the end of his career the enemy and the adversary." Fahim then confirmed Shahin's visual contrast.
On the other hand, Jay Weissberg, a critic of the US magazine Variety, joined the discussion by explaining that the viewers of the West were not interested in Shaheen's first films and that they were choosing the wrong path. "The problem is that we did not get films from those time periods, They also do not know what position or direction the Egyptian melodrama can be considered with respect. "