Films made a poet reveal that the underclass has a sensitive soul, writes Osama Kamal As the lights dimmed in the capacity-packed screening room of the Badrakhan Library, the screen lit up with a show of three films by Ahmed Fawzi, one of Cairo's most promising young directors. Fawzi spoke later about his own genre of filmmaking and his passion for the social underclass and the underprivileged. Fawzi started out as a poet, but he was not your average poet. In his poems, he has voluntarily abandoned conventional metaphors and similes to write in a language close to the average spoken word. His poems bear a lingering tinge of ordinary people and the haunting images of underprivileged zones. Poetry was never enough for Fawzi. So he decided to resort to cinema and employ its visual charm to reach out to people in the quiet of their front rooms. Fawzi, having obtained a bachelor degree in literature and education from Suez Canal University in 2003, left Port Said to study cinema in Cairo. He graduated from the Cinema Institute in 2009. At the institute, Fawzi was not only a student but an artist seeking a dream. His way of achieving his dream was to write and direct numerous films, including the three pieces now being shown at the Badrakhan Library: Koll Yom (Everyday), a documentary produced by the Canadian International Development Agency in 2006, Mocha, a short feature produced by the National Centre for Cinema in 2006; and Ana Mowaten Horr (I am a Free Citizen), a documentary produced by the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools in 2007. In Koll Yom, Fawzi attempts to depict the life of children living in Ezbet Al-Haggana, an impoverished section of Cairo. Fawzi's choice of topic is typical. Having grown up in Al-Hayy Al-Arabi, one of Port Said's roughest neighbourhoods, Fawzi was well positioned to understand the grievances of Ezbet Al-Haggana. Astonishingly, the budget for Koll Yom was less than LE4,000 ($800). When Fawzi made that film he was in his second year at the Cinema Institute and eager to come up with a new style and vision. Perhaps predictably, however, his excessive zeal and the modest budget got in the way. It was only in his next two films that his style began to mature. In Mocha, Fawzi tries to make a film without a conventional plot. He depicts ordinary phenomena in Cairo's backstreets, documenting the moment when low-priced meat imported from Sudan arrives at government-run stores. He uses uncut scenes that bear a sneaky elegance, a technique that implicates the viewer rather than offer a cut-and-dried interpretation. The style is not flawless, since some of the shots are too short to enlighten the viewer. Fawzi admits that his theoretical training has eclipsed his technical skills in this film. Another hindrance is the fact that the whole film had to be shot in 24 hours, a condition of the National Centre for Cinema. The latter is helping young directors make films, but it can only allow them 24 hours of camera time. With his third film, Ana Mowaten Horr, Fawzi comes into his own. He is particularly successful in getting school children to talk about democracy and national participation. He also uses several innovative approaches to avoid the linear progression of the film. His film is fresh in its outlook, and can be considered an example for promising directors interested in alternative cinema. Fawzi portrays the underclass with a soul-searching compassion that transcends the predicaments of their daily lives. Fawzi attributes his infatuation with film to the work of two icons of Egyptian cinema, the directors Mohamed Khan and Khayri Beshara. He believes Khan's Ahlam Hind we Camellia (The Dreams of Hind and Camellia) and Beshara's Yom Helw we Yom Morr (Sweet Day and Sour Day) are two of the most brilliant films in Egyptian cinema. In these two films, scenes are raw and unadorned, thus doing justice to the cause of the unprivileged classes. He is not a fan of Khaled Youssef's films, which also portray the underclass. In Hina Maysara (Until Further Notice), Dokkan Shehata (Shehata's Store) and Kalemni Shokran (Call Me, Thanks), Fawzi says that Youssef makes the poor look pitiful and even laughable. He believes that this is why Youssef's films have been so popular, because they offer circus-like entertainment. Fawzi fails to see any pleasure in such films, and considers them unfair to those they represent, people living in the slums. Fawzi's film experience is not confined to the three now being shown at the Badrakhan Library. He worked as assistant to Palestinian director Rashid Mashrahawi in Al-Ayadi Al-Saghira (Small Hands), a film produced in 2008 by Al-Jazeera about child labour. He also wrote the scripts for the documentaries Menna Fina (All in the Family) and Waqf Hal (Bad Business). The former, which was Fawzi's graduation project, won the Alexandria Film Festival award for documentary films in 2009. Fawzi also wrote the script for Worud Sama Le Saqr (Poisonous Flowers for Saqr). The film, adapted from a novel by Ahmed El-Sheiti, was a hit in the early 1990s. Fawzi is matter of fact about his work for commercial television and cinema. He has written five episodes of the famous advertisement Krombo, and is currently part of the writing team for the sit-com Ragel We Sett Settat (Man and Six Women). He has also worked on several song clips. For Fawzi, working in the commercial media is a pragmatic choice. He says that he tries to impart some of his dreams and visions on the commercial work in which he gets involved. The poet-turned-director has been trying for a year to make a film about the children of the tanneries. So far he has raised nearly LE100,000 of the total cost of production, estimated to be LE140,000. He says that for this type of film to provide a true picture of reality, a period of on- site research is necessary. When Fawzi screened Koll Yom at the Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel, nearly 200 residents from Ezbet Al-Haggana came to the show. When he screened Ana Mowaten Horr at the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools, 4,000 students attended the show. If anything, this proves that his films strike a chord with the people who inspired him. Is there any conflict among the many parts of Fawzi? He sees no problem in being a jack of all trade. The poet, script writer, and director says that all art forms are magical links to the human soul.
