Aswan International Film Festival announced on Monday dedicating its second edition to Algerian freedom fighter Djamila Bouhired, while inviting her to attend the festival and visit Aswan for the first time. The festival's manager, Hassan Abo El-Ella, stated in a press release that he had visited Bouhired at her home in Algeria to personally invite her, asserting that she showed willingness to come visit Aswan for the first time in her life. Abo El-Ella added that the reason behind choosing Bouhired to dedicate this year's festival to is her "being a symbol for Arab women's struggle for freedom, as well as her huge place in Egyptian and Arab nations' hearts." The 2nd Aswan International Film Festival kicks off on 20 February and will last for six days. The festival will also honour Egyptian superstar Mona Zaki for her enhancement of the Egyptian silver screen. Amira Atef, the festival's secretary general, said in a statement that Zaki presented a lot of women's struggles in her films, and that she had embodied the suffering of women from different social classes through her different roles. The festival has two competitions: long films, including feature, documentary, and motion films that should not be less than 60 minutes, and short films. Thirty-one films from all around the world are participating in the long films sections, while 18 films are competing in the short films one, all expressing women's struggles in different societies. Moreover, the festival also commemorates Egyptian writer and critic Samir Farid through a seminar that will be attended by some of his close friends and Arab critics that will talk about his writings and his personal life, as well as screening a film about his life.
