Face to face with Ramses The gigantic head of King Ramses rests on the grounds of Luxor's Ramesseum Temple. Cruelly beheaded a long time ago, the remains of Ramses's statue lie near the head, out of the cadre of Sherif Sonbol 's camera. The head, however, was interesting enough for this tourist. The 33rd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) concluded its activities in a lavish celebration held at the Cairo Opera House Main Hall last Friday in the presence of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, President of the CIFF Ezzat Abu Ouf and Vice-President of the CIFF Soheir Abdel-Qader. The ceremony began with a documentary on the history of the festival followed by an operetta directed by choreographer Walid Aouni. The Palestinian film Amreeka (America) received the award of Best Arabic Film. The Youssef Chahine Award for creativity went to Russian film One War. The Naguib Mahfouz Award for a director's First Film went to Argentinean director Gonzalo Calzada while Klaus Hörö from Finland collected the Saadeddin Wahba Award for best scriptwriter. Best Actor award was given to both talented Egyptian actor Fathi Abdel-Wahab for his role in the film Asafir Al-Nil (Nile Birds) and Indian actor Subrat Dutta for his role in the film Madholal Keep Walking. Abdel-Wahab dedicated his part of the award to the Egyptian football team and the crowds who went to Sudan to cheer their national soccer team in the deciding match of qualifying for the World Cup 2010 and were brutally attacked by Algerians. Actress Karolina Piechota from Poland received Best Actress award for her role in the film Drzazgi (Splinters), while the Golden Pyramid Award was given to the film Letters to Father Jacob from Finland. The Silver Award went to the digital Indian film The First Time shared with French film Exile in Paris. The Ministry of Culture presented two certificates of recognition for the Syrian film Al-Leil Al-Taweel (Long Night) and the Egyptian film Heliopolis for the significance of the issues raised by the two films. French director Mona Achache snatched two awards: one as Best Director and the other, the Silver Pyramid Award, presented for her film The Hedgehog. The ceremony, which was introduced by Egyptian budding cinema actors Amr Waked and Donia Samir Ghanem, witnessed the screening of the American film Amelia starring Hillary Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor and directed by Mira Nair. The closing ceremony witnessed an extensive media presence and the attendance of a plethora of cinema stars including, among others, Yehia El-Fakharani, Mustafa Fahmi, Youssef Shaaban, Yossra, Nadia El-Guindi, Khaled Abul-Naga, Hani Salama, Zeina, Maged El-Masry, Ahmed El-Fishawi, Menna Shalabi, Lebanese actress Serene Abdel-Nour and director Khaled Youssef. Marking the 66th Lebanese Independence Day, Lebanese Ambassador to Egypt Khaled Ziada hosted a prestigious reception at the Four Seasons at Nile Plaza Hotel. The reception was crowned by the presence of Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossam Zaki, People's Assembly Deputy Chairman Amal Othman, former minister of social affairs Mervat El-Tellawi, veteran actor Hussein Fahmi and his wife actress Leqaa Swedan, veteran actor Mahmoud Yassin, Lebanese actress Nagwa Sultan, head of the Egyptian-Lebanese Friendship Association (ELFA) Negad Shaarawi, Vice-President of ELFA Ghazi Nasser, head of Garden City Lions Club Awatef Serageddin as well as members of the Lebanese Embassy Hassan Shash, Walid Al-Alaili, Faisal Fetfet and Ahmed Baydoun. An exhilarating reception was hosted by Indian Ambassador to Egypt R Swaminathan and his wife Suchitra Durai at their residence in Zamalek on the occasion of the participation of gorgeous Indian actress and former Miss India Celina Jaitley in the closing ceremony of the 33rd CIFF. The reception was attended by beautiful actress Laila Elwi, veteran actor Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, actresses Leqaa El-Khamisi and Hanan Motawei, Al-Ahram Weekly 's very own columnist and actress Lubna Abdel-Aziz, the Weekly 's People Editor Reham El-Adawi and cinema critic Youssef Sherif Rizkallah. American University in Cairo (AUC) Press Director Mark Linz and AUC Press Promotion Manager Nabila Akl organised a book and author reception celebrating "Islamic Art, Architecture & Culture" at the AUC Bookstore in the downtown campus on Tahrir Square. The event was crowned by the presence of head of the People's Assembly Foreign Relations Committee Mustafa El-Fiqi, Al-Ahram Weekly 's very own caricaturist George Bahgory, AUC archaeology professor Fayza Heikal, Prince Abbas Helmi, writer Aisha Abul-Nour and novelist Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid. At the Cairo Opera House, an inventive experience in Egyptian spiritual music that blends Sufi singing and Coptic hymns in a brilliant melange will take place. The concert, organised in cooperation with the German Embassy in Cairo, will feature consummate Sufi singer Sheikh Mohamed El-Helbawi and his son Ali, who are due to perform a number of highly sought-after invocations, Sufi and religious songs in a modernised style. They will be accompanied by singer Ali El-Haggar and a spiritual Coptic music troupe led by Maher Fayez. German pianist Matthias Frey and composer Buedi Siebet -- who were behind the idea of the concert having both searched widely and deeply in the field of spiritual music in India, China, Mexico and Egypt -- will be accompanied by oud player Bassem Darwish and qanoun player Hossam Shaker. ( see Listings p.7 ) The AUC Press celebrated last Sunday the opening of the Margo Veillon Gallery of Modern Egyptian Art, exhibiting a selection from the masterpiece collection of Margo Veillon 's paintings and a comprehensive retrospective of the artist's nocturnes and fantasies. The new art gallery, located in the landmark AUC Sheikh Rihan Palace Building, will preserve and exhibit the permanent collection of Veillon (1907--2003), the prolific and independent artist who lived and worked in Egypt for nearly a century. The gallery will house and exhibit selections from the permanent Veillon collection of 100 masterpiece paintings and some 5,000 water colours, drawings, graphics, and other works of art depicting daily life in the Egyptian countryside, the Nile, and the deserts of Nubia, Sudan, and Ethiopia, as well as an archive of the artist's personal diaries, drawings and sketches, books, collections and photographs. "Although primarily a home for Margo Veillon's wide-ranging artistic work and legacy, the new gallery will, from time to time, also showcase other historic retrospectives of 20th century Egyptian art," said AUC Press Director Mark Linz. On 1 December, 6pm, at the AUC's Oriental Hall, downtown, the inaugural lecture of the series "The Translator" which is being launched by AUC's newly established Centre for Translation Studies, will host internationally renowned leading Arabic-English translator Denys Johnson-Davies who has translated more than 25 novels and short story collections of several Arabic writers, including Naguib Mahfouz, Youssef Idris, Tayeb Saleh and Salwa Bakr. He has also recently written a memoir -- Memories in Translation: A Life Between the Lines of Arabic Literature -- about his experience as a translator and the Arab authors he translated. The incredible American Dance Company MOMIX, created by Moses Pendleton, is full of surprise, delight and humour. Over the years, MOMIX, that its creator describes as a group of "dance-illusionists", has presented a universe of images. At the Cairo Opera House and Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria, the company will present dance pieces taken from the spectrum of themed concerts created over the 27 years since its founding in 1981, such as the Sunflower, Fans and Lylium ballets. With recommendations from Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Opera House Director Abdel-Moneim Kamel decided to offer students low-priced tickets to enjoy the company's spectacular shows. ( see Listings p.7 )
