Mohamed El-Assyouti sifts precariously through the many, many screenings of two beach-side festivals taking place at the same time Of the 194 films participating in the Ninth Ismalia Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films (10-17 September), 98 are competing in a range of categories. With a LE10,000 grand prix going to the director of the best official-competition entry, directors are also eligible for a LE6,000 best- in-this-category award and a LE4,000 jury award (which goes to the director of the second best film in each category), not to mention golden slates and certificates. Composed of Chilean director Tomàs Welis Barkan, Turkish producer and director Zeynep �zbatur, Niger director Rahmatou Keita, Egyptian critic and director Sayed Said, Ukranian director and composer Vadim Khrapatchev and Lebanese director Jean Chamoun, the official competition jury is paralleled by three others, each with its own additional awards: the Egyptian Cinema Critics' Association, offering a best film award; the Egyptian Documentary Filmmakers' Association, offering a long and short documentary award in the name of Salah El-Tuhami and Hossam Ali, respectively; and the Paris-based, Arabic Cinema magazine, edited by Qusayy Darwish, offering Euro 1,000 to the best official competition entry. Especially significant are two special screenings, an Iraqi film programme and a retrospective of the work of jury member Chamoun, as well as a seminar on experimental cinema. The special screenings are meant to underline two films, Rahmatou Keita's Alleessi... une actrice africaine (Alleessi, an African Actress, 2004, Niger, written by Rahmatou Keita) and Marilyn Darrah's The Holy Family in Egypt (Egypt/USA, written by Paul Perry), to set them apart from all others. Both are of exceptionally high quality, it has been announced, and they would have entered the official competition had not the director of the first become a jury member and the second arrived too late. Keita's film, which won the public award at the Geneva International Film Festival and the best documentary award in the Montreal International Film Festival, revolves around Zalika Souley, a resident of suburban Niamey, the Niger's capital. Now in her fifties, she looks after four children in a two- room apartment with neither electricity nor running water. Only 30 years ago she was a film star, but today who remembers her? The Holy Family, a far longer commentary on the cultural and religious diversity of the country, depicts writer Paul Perry's journey through the route said to have been taken by the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt, in the course of which he tries to find out whether these places were really visited by the Holy Family, comparing the past to the present. The Jean Chamoun tribute programme is an opportunity to view three of the documentary- maker's most interesting films. An account of the experiences of three women -- Kifah Afifi, a Sabra and Chatila massacre survivor subsequently imprisoned in Al-Khiyam camp in southern of Lebanon, the famous Palestinian poet Fadwa Touqan; and Samiha Khalil -- Ard Al-Nisaa (Women's Land, 2004, Lebanon- Egypt, 60 minutes) is a complex comment on women's social-political life in the Arab world. Rahinat Al-Intizar (Hostage of Waiting, 1994, Lebanon, 50 minutes) is the story of a doctor under occupation, while Ahlam Mualaqa (Suspended Dreams, 1992, Lebanon- England, 50 minutes) is an account of four characters trying to put together lives tattered by years of civil war. For its part the Iraqi programme begins with the festival's opening film Tariq Li Ghoroub Aqal (Road to a Lesser Sunset, written and directed by Basim Fayyad), in which four young Arabs visit present-day Iraq. Critic Kamal Ramzi describes the film, which received the audience award at Beirut's Arab Film Festival in 2004, as "not an elegy, but a hymn for life and hope". Al-Alka Al-Majnouna (Damn Gum, Iraq, 29 minutes, written and directed by Amar Saïd) is in essence a series of interviews with press correspondents from different countries working in Iraq after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, and their being subject to assassination by invisible enemies. Al-Lugha (Discourse, Iraq, 5 minutes, written and directed by Iraqi-Norwegian filmmaker Samir Zeidan) presents Majda, an example of expatriates' children unable to speak in their mother tongue. But it is Al-Iraq Mawtini (Iraq, My Country: An Exile's Return to Samawa, Iraq, 52 minutes, written and directed by Iraqi-Australian filmmaker Hadi Mahoud) that is arguably the more engaging take on displacement. It depicts Mahoud's return to Iraq after 13 years in Australia to make a documentary about the fall of Saddam, but ends up focussing on 12-year-old Ahmed. Having lost his job as a reinforced concrete factory worker after the factory is robbed, Ahmed now earns a living selling ammunition, and he guides the director through the secrets of Baghdad -- a trip that includes stops at torture chambers and coalition forces headquarters. Later, trying to film the aftermath of a car bomb, Mahoud has his camera smashed to pieces. The film also offers Majeed, a streetwise "idiot", an opportunity to speak about the recently overthrown order. Broaching political chaos and administrative corruption, the film ties in with Al-Iraq Ila Ain (Iraq, where to?, Iraq, 19 minutes, written and directed by Iraqi-Canadian filmmaker Baz Shamoun Al-Bazi). Once again, this time after 27 years of exile, a director tries to return to his homeland, 75 days before the capture of Saddam. In Jordan, he meets other Iraqis unable to cross the border: workers without jobs, truckers, cab drivers and anxious refugees. Worn down by years of war, sanctions, arbitrary arrests, torture and fear of execution, the men angrily recall the darkest years of the fallen regime. Coordinated by jury member Sayed Saïd, the experimental film seminar brings together a wide range of film figures, including, from outside Egypt, Edik Palmov from Russia, Ulrik Gutkin from Denmark, David Cangardel from France and Amaury Brumauld from Belgium. On the agenda are such questions as modes of experimentation through the 20th century and creative workshops. Out of a total of 52 films, 12 compete in the official competition of the 21st Alexandria International Film Festival (7-13 September 2005). According to festival regulations, all hail from Mediterranean countries. Particularly remarkable in this context is the inclusion of Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside, 2004) by the acclaimed Spanish director Alejandro Amenàbar, as well as the French Cézar-winning L'esquive (The Evasion, 2004) by French-Tunisian filmmaker Abdel Latif Kechiche. Competition films also include the French Rois et reine (Kings and Queen) by Arnaud Desplechin, the Italian Vento di terra (Wind of the Earth) by Vincenzo Marra, the Greek Brides by Pantelis Voulgaris, the Albanian The Moonless Night by Artan Minarolli, the Bosnian Days and Hours by Pjer Zalica, the Turkish Borrowed Bride by Atif Yilmaz, the Algerian Tahya Al-Jazair (Long Live Algeria) by Nadir Moknéche, the Moroccan Bab Al-Bahr (The Door to the Sea) by Dawoud Aoulad-Syad, not to mention the Egyptian Malik wa Kitaba (Head and Tail), written by Ahmed El-Nasser and Sami Hossam, directed by Kamla Abu Zikri, and starring Mahmoud Hemeida, Hind Sabri, Khaled Abul-Naga and Lutfi Labib. Funded by the Ministry of Culture (LE100,000), the Governorate of Alexandria (LE100,000) and the Ministry of Information (LE200,000) and an anonymous sponsor (LE150,000), the Alexandria Festival opened at seven screens yesterday coinciding with the presidential elections. Headed by Egyptian director Mohamed Khan, the jury brings together Egyptian actress Libliba, Moroccan director Mohamed Asly, Turkish director Biket Elhan, Albanian director Mevlan Shanaj, Spanish critic Antonio Weinrichter Lopez and French critic Patrice Carré. Honourees include Khan, who made 21 of the last 25 years' most remarkable films, and Libliba, who started acting as a child and has participated in the latest films by Youssef Chahine, as well as Osama Fawzi, Atef El-Tayib and Mohamed Abu Seif. They also include veteran actor Hussein Fahmi -- a 1970s heartthrob who has since contributed to numerous films, headed the Cairo International Film Festival for three years, and, more recently, become a UN Good Will Ambassador -- as well as staged combat specialist Mustafa El-Toukhi, who inherited the trade from his father. The festival will be also honouring the name of late Turkish director Omar Kafour, who passed away two months ago. Kafour's contribution to cinema covers 30 years, and the influence of Sufism was evident in his films. Last year, Kafour's film Confrontation entered the official competition of the festival, while his films Broken Heart and Secret Face, along with Biket Elhan's The Dark Side of the Moon, will be screened in the Turkish Panorama section this year. Two round-table discussions will be coordinated by critics Khairiya El-Bishlawi and Ahmed El-Hadari, respectively: the video-clip star invasion, and Hollywood's continued predominance in the international film market.
