Discourse over coffee The cast of the much talked about satirical play Qahwa Sada (Unsweetened Coffee) and its talented director Khaled Galal are ecstatic after Culture Minister Farouk Hosni decided to extend the show for one more month. The smashing success of the play is the reason behind it running for an eighth month. Though the play sports a crew of amateurs, the unprecedented turnout when the play was first performed at the Experimental Theatre Festival put it into the limelight. Throughout the past seven months, many senior state officials, intellectuals and art enthusiasts have come to the Creativity Centre at the Cairo Opera House to watch the play, some of them coming more than once. Photographer Sherif Sonbol was no exception. photos: Abdel-Hamid Eid The prestigious closing ceremony of the 15th National Festival for Egyptian Cinema (NFEC) took place at the Cairo Opera House Main Hall organised by the Cultural Development Fund. The ceremony started with the performance of an operetta directed by Walid Aouni. It was attended by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and the president of the NFEC, Ali Abu Shadi, who honoured a galaxy of Egyptian cinema figures such as veteran actors Adel Imam and Yosra, director Samir Seif, cinema critic Khairiya El-Beshlawi as well as décor designer Mukhtar Abdel-Gawad. A number of films and directors competed for the awards of best film and best director, among them Manal El-Seifi for her film Al-Mesh Mohandes Hassan (The Not-Engineer Hassan), Mahmoud Kamel for his film Mikano, Ahmed Rashwan for his film Basra, Mounes El-Shorbagui for Lahazat Onoutha (Feminine Moments), Ahmed Yousri for Boushkash, Khaled Marie for Asef Ala Al-Ezag (Sorry for the Inconvenience), Sami Rafe for Rami Al-Etsami (Rami the Protester), Ahmed Guindi for H Dabbour, Amr Salama for Zai Enharda (Like Today), and Abdel-Aziz Hashad for Camp. Deputy Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Jarom�r Tal�� was on a short visit to Cairo and Alexandria that ended 4 May. He met Alexandria Governor Adel Labib to discuss boosting cultural relations and enhancing mutual cooperation with Alexandria governorate and donating a selection of 80 Czech books to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. He also met Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni as they inaugurated the EU Film Club at the Embassy of the Czech Republic. ( see Listings p.5) French Ambassador to Egypt Jean Félix Paganon hosted an exceptionally glamorous reception at the garden of the French Embassy on the occasion of celebrating the extension of the Arabic broadcasting service on the French channel France 24. Chairman of France 24 Alain de Pouzilhac and Deputy Director of the Arabic Service Nahida Nakad were present as representatives of the channel. The reception was crowned by the presence of a cache of ambassadors, high- profile figures as well as media personalities, among them Cairo bureau chief of the German magazine Der Spiegel, Volkhard Windfuhr, Press Councellor Jean-Marie Safaa and Press Attaché Ahmed Fadel at the French Embassy as well as head of the Nile Culture Channel Gamal El-Shaer. photos: Ayman Barayez The first round of the Tawfiq Al-Hakim Theatre Festival held its closing ceremony at Al-Salam Theatre. It honoured a number of theatre icons, among them veteran actors Samiha Ayoub, Omar El-Hariri, Samira Abdel - Aziz, Mahmoud El-Hedeini as well as directors Galal El-Sharqawi and Ahmed Abdel-Halim, and Al-Ahram theatre critic Amal Bakir. In a beautiful night at the Four Seasons at the Nile Plaza where the Egyptian crowd blended with Scottish society, Nermine Kamel, daughter of counsellor Ahmed Kamel, and Geoff Brat, son of accountant Ken Brat, tied the knot. The wedding was attended by an array of ambassadors, businessmen and an elite society from the oil and gas and telecommunication industries. Belly dancer Dina and highly sought-after popular singer Essam Karika entertained the audience. After the wedding the bride and groom flew to the Maldives on their honeymoon. With the participation of 180 male and female students of Egyptian schools and universities who attended scholar programmes under the auspices of Injaz, a non-profit educational organisation, a competition was held lately, for the third year in succession, with the sponsorship of MobiNil. The winners were a group of students who took on the project of producing a "multipurpose laptop case". The winning group will be able to attend a regional competition slated for Lebanon during May, with the participation of 12 Arab countries. Injaz is able to deliver its educational programmes through the support of local and national businesses. This support comes in a variety of forms: financial, in-kind, and through the provision and encouragement of volunteers. Injaz is targeting students between the years 12 and 22, and aims at bridging the gap between the education system and the private sector. Injaz aims to help create a new generation of empowered youth who will become entrepreneurs or choice employees for prestigious corporations. The event was broadcast through the American channel, PBS. The number one catering sales manager from 18 Four Seasons hotels and resorts across the region was chosen from Egypt. Lamiaa Said, catering sales manager at Four Seasons Cairo, won the prestigious award of "Catering Person of the Year" after exceeding her goals by 184 per cent in 2008. Said surpassed her colleagues in Europe, Middle East and Africa by excelling under stressful and unpredictable work conditions, through her professionalism as a problem solver and action taker. Said has been an integral member of the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts chain for over five years in various positions, such as human resources, food and beverages and catering, in 2007 becoming a catering sales manager. Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafi launches a new regional initiative in collaboration with the European Culture Foundation and the British Council aiming at building a knowledge base to support planning and cultural cooperation in the Arab region. The first step in this initiative is to conduct an exploratory survey of the policies, legislation and practices that guide cultural work in eight Arab countries: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. This survey will be conducted by a group of Arab researchers from eight countries selected for their expertise in the field of cultural work and their knowledge of the status of cultural work in their countries. These researchers will begin their work with training under the guidance of European experts on the use of "the cultural policies survey model" developed by the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research and the Council of Europe, while modifying this model to suit conditions in each of the eight Arab countries studied. Under the auspices of the Zamalek Inner Wheel Club, Lebanese fashion designer Mireille Dagher presented recently her latest creation of haute couture in a fashion show that took place at the Ramses Hilton Ballroom where more that 500 senior state officials, ministers, ambassadors as well as celebrities attended, including the spouse of Saudi Ambassador to Egypt Hisham Al-Nazer, the spouse of Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Meselhi and member of the club Samia Abul-Fotouh. The event was organised by Onsi Barakat and was followed by a musical performance presented by Lebanese violinist Gehad Aql.
