The Royal Opera House's highly touted production “Beloved Friend” was the highlight of the 8th Abu Dhabi Festival, which closed on April 7. Based on the letters exchanged between Russian music composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and his muse/patroness (...)
It's not every day that you watch a Royal Opera House production in the Arab world, let alone a gala production that has only been staged twice before, the second time at Buckingham Palace for the Royal Family.
To call the showing of the Royal (...)
Of the various cultural festivals I've covered and attended over the years in the region, none has managed to offer the pure delight I experienced at the Abu Dhabi Festival, a momentously rich event with a laudably ambitious scope, a seductively (...)
Of the various cultural festivals held in the Arab world, the Abu Dhabi Festival stands in a unique position. The vast majority of cultural events organized in the region emphasize the new; creating a platform for young talents to be discovered by (...)
Apart from Heliopolis, my beloved district that has been the subject of various recent films, no other neighborhood in Cairo is as diverse, complex and utterly fascinating as Downtown. Once the most affluent, most beautiful locality in Egypt, the (...)
This article is not an obituary to Pope Shenouda III, who passed away on Saturday, March 17 at the age of 88; nor is it an appraisal of his accomplishments or his position in modern Egyptian history.
It's also not a response to the incredibly (...)
What was the very first movie you've ever seen? Mine was Victor Fleming's classic musical “The Wizard of Oz” starring Judy Garland. I was probably four years old. The film was showing on TV and I remember being transfixed for its entire (...)
A strong vibe of comfort, of serenity and reassurance, radiates from its frames. The fascinating, elusive subject matter of the documentary, the vast picturesque green vistas of the southern grazing lands captured so lovingly, so reverently, by the (...)
If Romania taught us anything, it is that not every Romanian film should be expected to be a masterpiece. Same goes for Morocco, the newly-appointed leader of Arab cinema.
Having produced some of the most accomplished Arab films of last year — (...)
For many years, Arab cinema has been scampering for world attention, attempting to overcome the long-held stigma that the budding films of the region don't travel well abroad.
The presence of Arab films in major festivals has increased over (...)
Ramy Essam, dubbed “singer of the revolution.”
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Last year started with the usual attractions: A batch of award-winning films and a couple of commercial fares for the (...)
Looks can be deceiving — especially with a city like Frankfurt. The fifth largest city in Germany is the financial and transportation center of the country, home to the European Central Bank and the German Federal Bank in addition to some of the (...)
For most of the previous decade, Egyptian film dominated the regional fest circuit, stirring a media frenzy for its popular stars and winning awards right and left for work that was far more developed, if less daring, than that of neighboring (...)
Against all possible odds, the fourth edition of the Panorama of European Film has managed to attract a sizeable audience with sold-out screenings, commencing in a week when all cultural activities in the nation have been suspended in the wake of (...)
“Melancholia,” Lars von Trier's latest monster, may forever be remembered for the wrong reasons. Jaws dropped when the notorious Danish provocateur joked that he understands Hitler; that he sympathizes with him, that he's “a Nazi.” The rest, as they (...)
Last May, the Cannes Film Fest hosted the world premiere of “Le gamin au vélo” (The Kid with a Bike), the latest picture by Belgium's greatest filmmakers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Cannes has become the expected home for the Dardenne Brothers, (...)
In 1973, a ground-breaking experiment in animal language acquisition was set up by Columbia professor, Herbert Terrace, to examine whether apes can communicate with humans using sign language. The subject of the experiment was a new-born baby (...)
Of all the Arab films I saw this year, no other has left such a strong impact me than Safinez Bousbia's Algeria-set musical documentary “El Gusto,” one of the finest Arabic non-fiction features ever made.
Dubbed by several critics as the Algerian (...)
Egyptian film is a staple attraction in the regional fest circuit. No Arab fest can do without one or more Egyptian features, for obvious reasons. Egyptian films remain the most prominent and most popular industry in the Middle East. Egyptian film (...)
French film “Chicken with Plums” was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, scooping the Best Narrative Film prize and a monetary award of $100,000 at the closing ceremony held on Friday evening.
Marjane Satrapi and (...)
The regional film festivals' fight over the limited pool of Arab films has intensified with every passing year—a fight not only to justify their existence but to matter.
The cultural, political and economic changes spurred by the Arab Spring have (...)
The past decade has been quite uneventful for award-winning German filmmaker Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire,” Paris,'Texas”).
Big duds such as “Don't Come Knocking” and “Palermo Shooting” prompted critics to write him off; his best years appeared (...)
Once again, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival cements its reputation as the regional Mecca for documentaries, thanks to an exciting selection featuring some of the biggest names in documentary filmmaking along with newcomers making a splash with their (...)
t has been dubbed the “Heaven's Gate” of Egyptian cinema; the biggest commercial and critical flop in the modern history of local cinema. A bloated, self-conscious art-house wannabe muddled in vague philosophies and sluggish narrative. (...)
The talk of Egyptian film circles for the past couple of weeks has been entirely focused on one topic and one topic only: The unexpected success of the newly released comedy “Sharea' El-Haram” (Haram Street).
Slammed by every single critic in the (...)