Mohamed El-Assyouti joins in a celebration of womanhood The Woman Film Festival (8-16 March, to coincide with both the International and Egyptian Women's Day) is the first event of its kind to be organised in Egypt. It is the work of volunteer filmmakers and critics who, under the presidency of senior critic Samir Farid, make up Cadre, the newly established Audio-Visual Development Foundation. And the festival is high-profile in more than one sense: its director is filmmaker Aliya El-Biali, its artistic consultant the Canadian-Egyptian documentary filmmaker Tahani Rashed. Together they undertook the programming, which reflects their views. The vast majority of the films on offer are Egyptian, with many shorts, whether fiction or documentary. Two films by veteran documentary filmmaker Atiyat El-Abnouni -- the festival's honouree -- will be screened, while Rashed's remarkable Four Women of Egypt will bring the event to a close on Egyptian Woman's Day; the screening is dedicated to the recently deceased activist Wedad Mitri, who together with scholar Amina Rachid, journalist Safynaz Kazem and activist Shahenda Maklad stars in the film (all four women shared years of friendship, activism and imprisonment in the 1970s). The documentaries screened also include two by younger filmmaker Hala Galal: Ahwal Al-Nas (People's Affairs, 2006) on court cases between spouses, especially the well- publicised case of Hind El-Hennawi; and Al-Shawk (The Thorn, 1999). Amal Ramses offers Bass Ahlam (Just Dreams, 2005), in which women speak of the everyday struggle for survival in spite of social repression. Viola Shafik's Musim Zar' El-Banat (Season of Planting Girls, 1999) deals with female genital mutilation, while Asmaa Yehia's Khamsa September 2005 (5 September) is on the first anniversary of the fire at the Beni Sueif theatre whose victims included dozens of theatre artist and critics. The Arab offerings are interesting. The Palestinian Alia Arasoughly's Baad Al-Samaa Al-Akhira (After the Last Sky) portrays the collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli women to help the inhabitants of the destroyed Palestinian village of Kfir Bir'im. Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansour's Nisaa Bila Zill (Women without Shadow, 2005), is the first Saudi documentary to feature Saudi women expressing their opinion of their position in society, while Yemeni director Khadija Al-Salami's Amina (2006) presents the case of a woman accused of murdering her husband and waiting on death row. Until the time of going to press, it still was not decided whether the the banned documentary Al-Mihna Imra'a (Profession Woman, 2006) will be screened; the film is included in the programme booklet. This short documentary by Egyptian Cinema Institute student Heba Yousry shows prostitutes and policemen speaking openly about their mutual hatred and collaboration. With the recent case of TV presenter Hala Sarhan, who came under fire for making a similar link in her programme, this issue is becoming not only a subject too hot to handle but also a real challenge: it will show what sort of territory a Woman Film Festival will manage to conquer. Feature films are no less important, however. The festival opens with Afghani filmmaker Siddiq Barmak's Osama (2003), the first Afghan feature film after the ousting of the Taliban -- in which a 12-year-old girl disguises herself as a boy in order to find work after her father dies; when she is discovered she is immediately married off to a much older mullah with three wives. Barmak's previous film work was confiscated during the reign of that regime, during which period he was exiled in Pakistan. After the fall of the Taliban he returned to head the Afghan Film Organisation. He also established the Buddha Film Organisation and manages the Afghan Children Education Movement (ACEM). His debut, Osama, had been a Japanese and Irish co-production made with support from the world-renowned Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. "Osama is a bitter and tragic story of Afghan life," Barmak says in his statement, "the worst time, under the Taliban regime, when nobody had the right to make a decision. Osama is the story of those who lost their identity; the little girl, Osama, is a conduit for storytelling." Feature highlights also include the Egyptian film Layla Al-Badawiya (Layla the Bedouin, 1937), directed by and starring the Egyptian multi-talented film pioneer Bahiga Hafez. Layla Al-Badawiya is a tale of love between Layla and her cousin Al-Boraq, threatened by the jealousy of Ziad and Amr, romantic and athletic rivals, respectively, of the chivalrous and heroic Al-Boraq -- who conspire with Kinga, king of the Bohd, to kidnap Layla. The film, considered a landmark of early Egyptian cinema, marks a centenary of filmmaking in Egypt. French filmmaker Agnès Varda's Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond, 1985) will make for another remarkable screening. The film is about Mona, a homeless character presented through interviews with those she encountered while roaming the south of France for a winter. "The finished film remains a puzzle," Varda says, "with some missing pieces. It still tells, through witnesses, the last months of a girl's free fall through winter. Mona's wanderings and loneliness get to me even if I don't understand her all the time." A remarkable film, it is a stylistically innovative investigation of one young woman's pursuit of her freedom. Varda, who began her career in the early 1950s, is one of the most prolific and interesting women directors in European cinema. And for the first time in Egypt, Syrian director Mohamed El-Malas's latest film Bab Al-Maqam (Passion,2005), a French-Tunisian- Syrian co-production, will be screened. Bab Al-Maqam is a strong statemnt against the oppression of women in a society increasingly influenced by Islamic fundamentalism. Evening screenings also include: Sophie Scholl -- Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days, 2005), directed by Marc Rothemund, about Sophie Magdalena Scholl, the most famous member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement; Whale Rider (New Zealand/Germany, 2002), directed by Niki Caro, in which Pai, an 11-year-old girl in the patriarchal New Zealand tribe Whangara, challenges a thousand-year-old tradition that reserves chiefdom for the first-born males; and Hia w'Houa (She & He), written and directed by Tunisian filmmaker Elyes Baccar, a love story. At the same time, in a special 3 pm programme, five films from Greek woman directors will be screened. These include the Greek-French-Italian co-production Alexandria (2001). Directed by Maria Iliou, it tells the story of Nina, who finds out at present about her mother Elena's love story with the young man Yusri, which happened a long time ago while the mother was living in Alexandria in the 1950s. It also includes Rakushka (Shell, 2004), a loose adaptation of Fyodor Dostoievski's Krotkaya (The Gentle Maiden or The Meek One, 1876) set in modern-day Athens, scripted and directed by Fotini Siskopoulou. The festival will also screen short fiction films by female film students from the selection of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival as well as Australian filmmaker Jane Campion's early shorts, An Exercise in Discipline -- Peel (1982), Passionless Moments (1983) and A Girl's Own Story (1984). Other short fiction films include Ragilha (Her Man, 2007) by Ayten Amin, based on Ahdaf Suoif's short story about the rivalry between two wives over the same man, as well as Media House-produced films about HIV Aids, directed by Mona Makram and Amir Ramsis, SEMAT-produced Nazra Ila Al-Sama (A Look up to Heaven, 2003) by Kamla Abu Zekri, based on Ihsan Abdel-Quddous's short story Ayna Yaqif Allah? (Where does God Stand?), and Maggie Morgan's Minhum Fihum (Inside Out, 2007) in which several women express their reflect on daily banalities which turn out to have greater significance, shedding light on the pressures society puts on them. The event is organised simultaneously in Cairo, at the Artisitic Creativity Centre, Opera House Grounds and in Alexandria at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Auditorium Hall.
