Few places are more heavily laden with memory than Zahret Al-Bostan, the coffeehouse tucked in a side alley not far from Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo. Osama Kamal joins in the coffee ritual It is 80 years since Zahret Al-Bostan first opened its doors. However it was later, in the 1970s, that it became a hub of Cairo's cultural life. In a way it replaced its more elegant neighbour, the Café Riche, as the favourite hangout of Cairo's poets, painters, actors and novelists. Eager to lead a life different from that of previous generations, the artists of the 1970s took a liking to the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the backstreet establishment. In the 1980s and 90s new generations flocked to the venue, making the coffeehouse a byword for artistry. It was not until the 2000s that other Downtown cafés such Al-Takeiba, Al-Nadwa Al-Thaqafiya, Am Saleh, Al-Borsa, After Eight, Al-Khan, Al-Garaj and Al-Mamar saw an influx of Cairo's young intelligentsia. One regular of Zahret Al-Bostan has just turned the life of the coffeehouse into a film. Nagi El-Shennawi has made a 25-minute documentary of the past of the coffeehouse. The film, Wujuh Al-Bostan (Faces of Bostan) was shown at the Atelier Al-Qahira on 29 December and in the Zahret Al-Bostan Coffeehouse on the following night. The film is a sequence of photographic shots of the coffeehouse's familiar faces, of everyone who made an impression in the place, whether an artist, a regular, or a worker, over the past 20 years or so. El-Shennawi has been taking pictures of the coffeehouse since 1988. The film gives us a glimpse of how life was 10 or 20 years ago in this popular spot, with shots of former regulars who have departed from our world and patrons who are still around. What fascinated me while watching the film at the coffeehouse was the reaction of the clientele. As a face appeared on the screen, you would hear the name of the person to whom the face belonged shouted all around. It was like turning the pages of a photograph album surrounded by a large family, a family that had inhabited this sidewalk for the past 20 or 30 years. Then the comments would come, mostly nostalgic, as people remembered past friends. Almost 300 faces are shown in the film, capturing not just the inner soul of the subject but also immortalising a moment, preserving an emotion, and transporting us back in time. A faithful disciple of Henri Cartrier-Bresson (1908-2004), El-Shennawi believes in the spontaneity of photography, in what came to be known as the Decisive Moment. His photographs are never choreographed, the subjects are unaware they are being watched, and the effect is subtle yet perceptive. The school of the Decisive Moment drives its inspiration from a heightened awareness of time as well as the realisation that precision and insight are essential components of photography. Like other photographers, El-Shennawi believes that light is the tool of his trade, the basis for forming a picture and the vehicle that captures life on film. Watching the Faces of Zahret Al-Bostan, one realises that El-Shennawi knew his subjects well, and was therefore able to take photographs that revealed their inner thoughts. Some of his photographs show regulars of the coffee shop over an extended period of time. We see shots taken at various years of novelists Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid, Sahar Tawfik and Mekkawi Said. And we see the younger faces of poets Mohamed Afifi Matar, Ibrahim Dawoud, Saadani El-Salamoni and Ibrahim Abdel-Fattah. We see famous people, such as the writers Bahaa Taher, Khayri Shalabi, and Sayed Hegab. And we also see photographs of the people who worked in the establishment, such as Hag Abdel-Latif, Sayed Batta, Ahmed Moos, Ramadan and Umm Amira. I asked El-Shennawi, who began patronising Zahret Al-Bostan 30 years ago, if today's artists were any different from those of the past. His answer was a definite "no". A true artist was timeless, he said. Aside from photography, El-Shennawi writes short stories. He has two published collections: Tamanna Law Raa al-Bahr (He Wished to See the Sea) and Al-Sabah Al-Tali (The Morning After) . This should not come as a surprise, for both his father and uncle were well-known writers and poets. His father was Maamoun El-Shennawi (1914- 1994), who wrote lyrics for Umm Kolthoum, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Farid Al-Atrash, and Abdel-Halim Hafez, including Habib Al-Omr (Love of my life), Beid Annak Hayati Azab (Away from you my life is endless suffering), and Ansak (Do I forget you?). His uncle, Kamel El-Shennawi (1908-1965) was a pioneer of Egyptian journalism and the writer of the famous songs La Takzebi (Don't lie) sung by Nagat El-Saghira and Habibaha (Her lover) by Abdel-Halim Hafez. In tribute to his father, El-Shennawi uses Umm Kolthoum's song Ansak as the score of Faces of Al-Bostan.
