Whoever scheduled the President of Egypt's visit to Berlin from 2 June to 4 June must be a political genius. That person/entity must be so perceptive that in order for the President's visit to occur without any undesirable media frenzy, and thus (...)
"Germany's government believes that Egypt ought to maintain the basic values of human rights for all its citizens, engage in a dialogue with all the opposing political factions and respect the religious freedoms of all Egyptians." Those were the (...)
"Germany's government believes that Egypt ought to maintain the basic values of human rights for all its citizens, engage in a dialogue with all the opposing political factions and respect the religious freedoms of all Egyptians." Those were the (...)
If I had my druthers, the first thing I would have done on the evening of 11 February 2011, would be to restructure and regulate Egypt's media. Its current state of discord, lawlessness and entropy is tantamount to the country's evolving political (...)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel helped her black-clad Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its offshoot-party in the state of Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), win a momentous victory with 42 per cent of the votes, securing an almost (...)
With the first vote in the German elections being cast at 8am on Sunday 22 September and the last at 6pm on the same day, Germany won't be alone in waiting for the final results. The United States, Russia and China, whose economic, geopolitical and (...)
CAIRO - Directors have their own individual style when it comes to conveying their messages. They can make use of metaphors, all sorts of analogies, allusions, camera perspectives, and so on. Some are subtle and some are not, but when it comes to (...)
CAIRO - To talk about the events that took place last week and to try to view them, somehow, from a cinematic point of view is a difficult task.
As usual, to attempt to view the events from a wider perspective would be premature, and what occurred (...)
CAIRO – Ramadan, the so-called “Official Television Season” (for whatever reason) is over with, and then after it came the Eid, with new films emerging as they always do around the holidays.
These films are considered good for business, so these (...)
CAIRO – Once in a long while, there comes a film that should have it all, especially if it's already based on as solid premise – even if it's just an advertising campaign like the new Eid film "Ana Badiy' Ya Wadi'" (I'm in Trouble, Wadi').
The film (...)
CAIRO – Day in and day out, there has been news about various troubled productions for the soap operas airing during the holy month of Ramadan. From “Khatem Suliman”, “Shari' Abd Al-Aziz”, to “Ihna al-Talaba”, these were shows that were threatened (...)
CAIRO – It is sometimes difficult to gauge the level of understanding of film theory these days: how clear must message be to for audience to “get it”, how obvious does a joke have to be to reach a massive audience, has the art of sarcasm (...)
CAIRO - Films whether American, Egyptian, or Japanese have a distinctive style to them. When a foreigner sees a film made by another culture, many things may not actually elicit their attention or go completely over their heads.
This may even be the (...)
CAIRO - Hollywood is often anecdotally termed, "the world capital of sex and violence". However, in the last few years a "new element" has been more greatly explored as a way to making more money.
The silver screen has been filled with princesses, (...)
CAIRO - A revolution is made so it can bring change; it changes people, it's meant to change a system, changes the way we think, and brings to light things that were previously hidden.
Many filmmakers tend to have a message in their films; they want (...)
CAIRO - To say that Egypt is a religious country is an understatement. Egypt is, without a doubt, the most religious country in the Middle East, regardless whether the reason might be due to its size, or population, or the amount of poverty of the (...)
CAIRO - The painter Mary Cable once said: "The best biographies leave their readers with a sense of having all but entered into a second life and of having come to know another human being in some ways better than he knew himself."
Big-screen (...)
CAIRO - "Anybody who comes to the cinema is bringing their whole sexual history, their literary history, their movie literacy, their culture, their language, their religion, whatever they've got. I can't possibly manipulate all of that, nor do I (...)
CAIRO - The writer Napoleon Hill once said: "Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another."
Art is as much influenced by other outside sources as well as it is (...)
CAIRO - There are so many great movie quotations, which echo in the minds of many cinema lovers. Like nearly everyone in America, Rhett Butler's (Clark Gable) famous pronouncemented: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" as he left Tara in "Gone (...)
CAIRO - "They will come to learn in the end, at their own expense, that it is better to endure competition for rich customers than to be invested with monopoly over impoverished customer,” Frederic Bastiat, the French classical liberal theorist, (...)
CAIRO - The Egyptian Government clearly underestimated the power of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, the attempted censorship of these outlets by completely shutting down the internet service did not really work either. If (...)
IN the preface for her scholarly book "Seeing and Believing: Religious Values in Movies", Margaret R. Miles writes that, "The field of religion and film has been burdened by several less than fruitful approaches. Many reviewers for religious media (...)
CAIRO - New Year's Eve is a chaotic, joyous, obvious celebratory time, and it's really the one holiday that most people celebrate regardless of religion.
New Year's is a day that is full suspense all on its own, with the countdown, people rushing (...)
CAIRO - To look at things in retrospect can be a little unfair. Trying to fix “what was” is almost living in regret, but perhaps trying to look at the mistakes of the past will certainly benefit what is to come. Just like Oscar Wilde once said: (...)