THE FIRST round of the Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF, 21-28 February) opened Tuesday with Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Grima's Teza (2008). Haile, who studied acting and filmmaking in Chicago and now at Howard University in Washington DC, is among the best known African filmmakers. Teza was selected by the president of the festival Sayed Fouad as part of a tribute to the famous Ethiopian filmmaker in this round of the festival. It is about an Ethiopian intellectual who returns to his homeland after several years spent studying medicine in Germany, to find Ethiopia ravaged by political turmoil. Teza won the special jury prize at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. LAFF is the first regional festival to present African cinema in Egypt; it is also the first film festival organised by an NGO: the Independent Shabab Foundation, a non-profit organisation working in theatre and cinema.