Festival of McFestivals On Sunday 14 August, the Edinburgh International Festival begins. Heralded as the first ever UNESCO city of Literature, every year during the month of August, the Scottish city hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors and performers from all over the world, offering an immense number of literary and artistic events, with spectacular shows ranging from street performances to parades, lectures and seminars, plays, comedy shows, concerts, and art exhibitions in galleries around Edinburgh as well as site-specific installations. Though theoretically all events take place under the wide umbrella of the International Festival, in practice there are many festivals within the festival which may begin few days before or after the International Festival. Thus there is the International Film Festival, taking place this year between 17-28 August, hosting a series of filmmakers, editors and actors, including Sean Connery who celebrates his 75th birthday this month. And there is of course the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the biggest event of its kind in the whole world with over 500 theatre shows presented, which is taking place this year between 7-29 August. As for the Edinburgh International Book Festival (13 - 29 August), this year's programme features a line up of over 500 novelists, poets, politicians, crime writers, scientists, journalists, historians and biographers, as well as children's authors and illustrators. Book festival director Catherine Lockerbie explained that an international series, entitled "Nations Unlimited" will be this year's festival theme exploring the shape of nations in the 21st century and providing an "in depth international look at nations -- their shapes, their behaviour, their future." 2005 marks the centenary of Norway's independence from Sweden, and the series of events will begin in Scotland and continue in Norway and conclude in Sweden this September. Among those attending this year are the famous Italian dramaturgist Dario Fo, the 1997 Literature Nobel laureate, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, filmmaker and art historian John Berger, South African novelist and anti-apartheid campaigner André Brink, Japanese horror fiction writer Koji Suzuki, political cartoonist Steve Bell, outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker and writer Hiner Saleem and award-winning Palestinian writer Suad Amiry. The Anglo-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, who has not participated in the event for 20 years, will be talking on 27 August about his latest book, Shalimar the Clown. Cinema online A new website, www.clacket.com has been launched featuring up to date news on the film industry, including current releases and interviews with directors and actors. There are also links to articles written by film critics, and a good overview of the history of Egyptian cinema. Information on Egyptian cinema is dealt with in brief sections on the first films screened in the country during the late nineteenth century, as well as silent cinema, Studio Misr, films between WWII and the 1952 revolution, films produced between the July revolution and 1973, and finally a section on the Egyptian new realism movement and beyond. The website also promises a number of workshops, a competition in which fans can win a dinner date with their favourite star, and a virtual film festival. On their news section, Clacket.com announced that Ali Abu Shady, the head of the National Cinema Institute and the Algerian Ministry of Culture have organised for the screening of a number of Egyptian films in Algeria after a thirty year hiatus. At present, the website carries a single article on Algerian cinema between 1958 and 2004 by Mohamed Bakram, head of the Film Critics Association in Algeria. Also online, a new website dedicated to Soad Hosni, dubbed the "Cinderella of Egyptian Screen" has been recently launched by her sister. The banner carried on top of the home page asks "Who is Soad Hosni?" In trying to answer this question, a biography of her early years, including a family tree, as well as a brief history of her acting career are provided. The new site includes a good photo-gallery with pictures of Hosni in the various stages of her life and reproductions of letters and notes in her handwriting. Finally, many interesting details about her last years spent in England are provided, including newspaper clippings and debates surrounding the mystery of her tragic death in London, on 28 June 2001 at the age of 57. Fidelity, thy name is love Lebanese diva Magda El-Roumi is back, at last. Fans of her delicate persona and her dramatically expressive voice were offered a glimpse of her newly-released album, Al-Hobb Wal-Wafaa (Love and Fidelity) with the broadcasting of the title tracks' video clip on satellite stations. Following the lengthy hiatus during which she tended to her personal life, Magda El-Roumi returns with renewed emotion to her crystal voice -- and graceful as ever. To music composed by Abdel-Rabb Idris, Roumi singing leans to the lower tones of a bass, rather than her customary high notes. Magda El-Roumi's incredible gift as a singer was established since early age when she collaborated with director Youssef Chahine in Awdet Al-Ibn Al-Daal (Return of the Prodigal Son, 1976), starring and singing to date some of her most memorable songs. Shot in the snowy winter of Eastern Europe, Al-Hobb Wal-Wafaa's clip directed by Said Al-Maarouq not only showcases El-Roumi's superior singing quality, but is itself a respectable narrative shot and edited with cinematic talent. Since the release of the hugely successful Kalimat (Words), the diva has crowned the world of female singers in the Arab world. With her latest album, Magda El-Roumi has already reaped the best that critics' pens could ever write.
