Limelight: Roll out the red carpet By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Twenty-nine years old and going strong, the Cairo International Film Festival is in full swing. For almost three decades the red carpet has been rolled out for the glitterati of the film world, raising the excitement and anticipation in the city to a feverish pitch. Since its founding in 1976 at the hands of renowned archaeologist, journalist, and art critic Kamal El-Mallakh, the Cairo International Film Festival has enjoyed a category A status, on a par with Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Mogul filmmakers and superstars have graced our shores through the years, among them Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, André Moravia, Vittorio de Sica, Catherine Deneuve, Oliver Stone, Marcello Mastroianni, Nicholas Cage, and Michelangelo Antonioni. With a first-rate selection of 200 films, accompanied by 100 filmmakers, 500 Journalists from over 40 countries, our capital is thumping and jumping with joy. Fifteen films are in competition from fifteen countries, with several films from the Arab World including The Fall of Baghdad, directed by Mohamed Amin, Egypt's only entry. Adding glamour and glitter to our starry, starry nights, is the presence of Egypt's very own son, Omar Sharif, who has been nothing less than brilliant on the international arena throughout the last four decades. Since his first mesmerising appearance in Lawrence of Arabia, Sharif has maintained his mystifying magic, decade after decade. Sharif presides over a select group of Arab filmmakers who have distinguished themselves beyond their borders, rendering the Arab world forever proud. Another honoured guest at this year's glowing fiesta is the incomparable Morgan Freeman, whose brilliant career has spanned four decades, with each performance, distinctive, profound and formidable, even when the films were not. His first appearance as a resident on Sesame Street, delighted both young and old as they thrilled to his rendition of Easy Rider and Count Dracula. He came to the big screen through another children's feature: Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow (1971), and ever since, the offers have been flowing. He received his first Oscar nomination for his rendition of a merciless hoodlum in Street Smarts (1987), but it is only when he sat behind the wheel, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), that the whole world bowed with reverence. The patient and dignified chauffeur to the temperamental, Miss Daisy, won him a second Oscar nomination and made him a star. He scored again in the Civil War epic, Glory, with Denzel Washington -- the story of freed slaves forming the first all African/American fighting brigade. Dazzling audiences with each incredible performance, Morgan chose wisely and chose well, carefully climbing the ladder to stardom. The decade of the 1990s, often referred to as the decade of plenty, was certainly plentiful enough for Freeman. His rise continued flawlessly and steadily, making him constantly in demand. Praise followed praise from the box-office smash Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991) to Clint Eastwood's Oscar winning Western, Unforgiven (1992). It was in the uplifting Shawshank Redemption (1994), however, that Freeman scored his biggest hit as a prison inmate befriending the falsely accused Tim Robbins. He displayed his comforting cool in a series of successive roles as detective in Seven (1995), and as the determined Alex Cross in Kiss the Girls (1997), and Along Came a Spider (2001). He topped his stature by becoming the first African/American president of the United States, facing Armageddon in Deep Impact (1998). With nowhere to go higher on earth, he was raised to divinity status, portraying God himself in Bruce Almighty (2003). His fourth Oscar nomination came at the hands of friend Eastwood, who cast him as ex-prize fighter "Scrap Iron", Eddie Dupris in Million Dollar Baby. Freeman finally won the much-coveted gold which had unjustly evaded him throughout his illustrious career. Often called "the greatest actor on film today", Freeman plays roles of weight and value. "Always gravitating towards gravitas", he is the universal actor, a man of his time, unhampered by colour or type. That's a rare thing for a black actor. The "rare thing" in today's Hollywood is the likes of Freeman, abounding with talent, dignity and integrity. Born in Memphis, Tennessee on 1 June, 1937, Freeman lived with his grandparents in Charleston Mississippi, while his parents migrated to Chicago, seeking work in the factories to maintain their six children during the depression years. At school he excelled in extra-curricular activities, music and theatre, but eventually took to academics and became an avid reader. During his summer visits to Chicago, he discovered what would become his life's passion. He discovered cinema. He moved to Los Angeles in 1959 to pursue his one love, but it was not long before hunger and frustration set in, and sent him packing to New York. He landed his first role in the off-Broadway The Nigger Lovers (1967): "It was wonderful, I wasn't hungry anymore, and neither was my dog." The next year found him starring on Broadway opposite Pearl Bailey in an all-black exuberant version of Hello Dolly. A big break came with television's Sesame Street and The Electric Company teaching kids phonetics and grammar via sketches, songs and cartoons. An exodus of black actors to Hollywood began in earnest in the 1970s, but Freeman bided his time and waited for Hollywood to come to him. It did, by no less than actor/director Robert Redford who cast him in Brubaker (1980). The 1980s launched his Hollywood career at the expense of his marriage to wife Jeannette Adair Bradshaw. The years of plenty were followed by three years of famine, until Paul Newman came to the rescue casting him in Harry and Son. When he heard that Morgan had not worked for three years, he cried "that's criminal." Following Miss Daisy, Freeman became a bona fide super star. He won a Golden Globe as well as another Oscar nomination for his performance, and became a favourite amongst film lovers and filmmakers. Yet it took another decade for Oscar to honour his noble and heart-stirring performance in Million Dollar Baby (2004). Tall, dignified and charismatic, he is "one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema." Constrained and certainly the least boisterous of men, he exudes poise, decency and compassion, yet he is most playful, charming, and fun- loving. He has been a pillar of strength for black actors as well as for the whole Hollywood acting community. With his authoritative and mellifluous voice, he has narrated several documentaries, the most recent being Marche de L'Empereur (March of the Penguins), this summer's runaway hit. What you may not know about this accomplished actor, is that he can sing and dance with the best of them, he is fluent in French as witnessed in Sum of All Fears (2002), is a licensed pilot and owns his own production company Revelation Entertainment. He owns a huge telescope in Charleston Mississippi, where he resides with his wife of 21 years, Myrna Colley Lee. After surviving the worst of times, years of struggle in America's South, where life was a nightmare for blacks, and after toiling for decades as a young actor in the rough and tough field of show business, Freeman is now enjoying the best of times. His hard, full life has only added to the innumerable qualities inherent in the man, and the actor. Often compared to the equally calm, noble, and dignified Henry Fonda, Freeman was once asked, which of his films did he think deserved an Oscar. His reply: "all of them." We concur. He never disappoints, forever faithful to his craft, forever serving his art with all his might. Hard work always pays. Did he not go from slave to president of the USA, to God in a few short years? Much awaits, and much is expected from this unique, tall, elegant, African/American who now graces our shores with his presence. Kudos to the Cairo International Film Festival and its president Cherif El-Choubachi for hosting "the one true face of human decency" in film today! A man so various, that he seem'd to be , Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome. John Dryden (1671-1700)
