Umm Kolthoum remembered To commemorate the anniversary (30 December 1898) of the legendary diva Umm Kolthoum, El Sawy Culturewheel in Zamalek gave a concert featuring two of her best loved songs: Al-Hobb Kolah (All my love) and Hayarat Qalby (You Tortured My Heart). photos: Bassam El-Zoghby A host of well known writers and artists, headed by Culture Minister Shaker Abdel-Hamid and adviser to the Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre El-Sayed Yassin participated in the reopening of Al-Hanager Arts Centre after its complete renovation, a process that went on for four years. Located at the Opera House grounds, the centre was overflowing with guests who -- all warmly welcomed by its director Hoda Wasfi. Among the attendees were Cairo University professor of folk art Ahmed Mursi and Al-Ahram Weekly 's very own theatre critic Nehad Selaiha. The celebration started with a speech delivered by Wasfi paying tribute to the technicians who helped the centre to play a crucial role in the Egyptian cultural scene during the past years. The grand finale of the ceremony was a play entitled Ahu Dah Elli Sar (This is What Happened) starring comedian Lotfi Labib and Mona Hussein, written by Mohamed El-Refaai and directed by Mohsen Helmi. photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid The premiere of the newly released blockbuster Wahed Sahih (A Whole One) took place last Wednesday at Nile City cinema with attendance from the cast and crew. Wahed Sahih features Hani Salama, Rania Youssef, Basma, Kenda Aloush, Zaki Fatin Abdel-Wahab ; it is written by Tamer Habib and directed by Hadi El-Bagouri. Many celebrities were present to congratulate the stars of the film. Students from the Department of Petroleum and Energy Engineering at the American University in Cairo (AUC) have won the first prize award at the 10th annual World Wind Energy Conference (WWEC 2011), hosted this year in Egypt. A total of five students from the Petroleum Department: Rana Samir, Ahmed El-Gamal, Sara Mishriki, Mahmoud Gomaa, and Ibrahim Sheta, competed with their counterparts from national and international universities to present projects that deal with renewable energy and energy efficiency. They were awarded a certificate and financial prize in addition to premium exposure of their talents before more than 250 international scientists, decision-makers, and financial experts who attended the final session of the conference. As part of their first place award, the students were offered internships in multinational companies with the possibility of employment after graduation. The students' project "Library Solar Powering" is inspired by the energy crisis worldwide and focuses on reducing consumption at one of the most heavily utilised buildings on the AUC New Cairo Campus. "I was extremely proud to hear AUC and the department announced several times during the closing ceremony," said Magdi Nasrallah, founding chair of the department. The launch of The Religious Architecture in Middle Egypt in the Romanian and Greek Eras, a book by TV anchor and professor Taghrid Arafa, was held at the Diwan bookshop in Heliopolis. The book is published by Madbouli publishing house as part of a series about the history of Pharaonic Egypt. The media figures, archaeologies and intellectuals present included Fayza Wasef of the Desert Research Centre, Mukhtar El-Sherif, accountant Wafaa Mansour and professor of literature at Helwan University Mohga Mustafa. photo: Ayman Barayez Al-Shemou' Salon, founded by Lotus Abdel-Kerim, held a seminar entitled "Landmines and Development in Africa", where Minister of Culture and Education in Somalia Ahmed Aeideed discussed the danger of landmines on people and how they hinder development in agriculture, manufacture and urban planning in many African countries such as Egypt, Algeria and Libya as well as Somalia. The head of the Arab Committee for Developing Mine-Infested Areas Magdi Diab expanded on the same topic. The evening was attended by Somali Ambassador to Egypt Abdallah Hassan Mahmoud as well as writer Salma Qassim and Al-Ahram's own Nisf Al-Donia magazine writer and poet Ahmed El-Shahawi. In connection with the year-long celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, Asia's first Nobel Laureate, the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, Embassy of India in Cairo -- in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture -- is organising a visit to Egypt by the renowned Indian classical singer Sumitra Guha and her troupe with the leading classical dancer Kaberi Chatterjee and her 11-member troupe to perform in Egypt from 15 to 21 January. Guha is a leading performer of Hindustani classical music (which prevails in North India). She recently won the national award of Padmashri from the President of India. Accompanied by her four- member troupe, she will perform both Hindustani classical numbers including ragas (a melodic mode somewhat equivalent to a musical scale) as well as notable songs composed by Tagore. Chatterjee is a graduate of the famous Visva Bharati University founded by Rabindranath Tagore in the Indian state of West Bengal. At a young age she started learning dance, concentrating on the Manipuri classical style, in Visva Bharati. She has performed title roles in Tagore dance dramas (produced in collaboration with her director husband Obhi Chatterjee) including film versions. In Egypt, she and her 11- member troupe will perform the dance-drama Shyama. Shyama is a classic Bengali romantic tragedy written in 1939 by Rabindranath Tagore. It was Tagore's last major work for the stage and includes a unique combination of song, dance, colour and movement in the dance style Tagore created, called Rabindranrithya. The visit of the two troupes were sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The troupes will be performing at the Cairo Opera House, the Ismailia Cultural Palace, the Sayed Darwish Opera House, Alexandria, the National Academy of Arts in Giza and the Beni Sweif Cultural Palace. ( see Listings p.17 ) The Sundance Film Festival (19-29 January) announced in its World Cinema Documentary Competition selection the Egyptian-Danish documentary 1/2 Revolution, a co-production of the Danish Globus Film and the Egyptian Prophecy Films. It is the first Egyptian film to be selected in the festival since it started, and the first Arab documentary in competition since the Jordanian documentary Recycle by Mahmoud Al-Massad. 1/2 Revolution is directed by the Danish-Palestinian director Omar Sharqawi and Egyptian-American director Karim El-Hakim. 1/2 Revolution is a personal, intimate story from the Arab Spring: a group of friends living in downtown Cairo struggle to stay together during the first, chaotic days of the revolution. As waves of protests escalate in their neighbourhood, close to Tahrir Square, directors Sharqawi and El-Hakim take to the streets to capture the historical events unfolding around them. But as violence and uncertainty build, El-Hakim 's apartment turns into a revolutionary command centre of sorts; there friends and neighbours stick together in a bid to survive the counter-revolutionary attacks of police and pro-Mubarak thugs. Sharqawi feels that 1/2 Revolution is "an extremely rich personal experience that has changed a lot in me on the human, personal and professional levels. When it came to 1/2 Revolution we had to record what was happening despite the dangers we faced on a daily basis. Egypt is a country that I identify with, that's why I established a production company in it, and I'm planning on directing another film in Cairo."
