Asian-African Festival: Combating terrorism with art

CAIRO - 10 September 2017: Veteran Egyptian actress Sohair al-Morshedi, president of the soon-to-inaugurate African Asian Festival for Cinema, Arts, and Tourism, expressed her gratitude for Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and the Minister of Culture Helmy al-Namnam, for their support of the festival, which aims to combat terrorism through artistic expression.
“Art is the mirror of people...the light that shines to defeat ignorance, extremism, and terrorism... [terrorism] is no longer confined to a particular country but unfortunately exists in the whole world,” Morshedi said at a press conference held last Saturday at the State Information Service residence to announce the festival details.

‘’I would like to dedicate the first edition of the festival to the souls of our beloved martyrs who sacrificed their lives to protect our dear homeland Egypt,’’ Morshedi stated. The press conference was attended by the former Minister of Health Helmy el-Hadidy, acclaimed cinema critic Amr Dawara, and Festival Director Kholoud Hisham.


The festival will be held September 14 - 20, 2017 in Sharm El-Sheikh to highlight the culture and attractions of each participating country. Workshops and meetings will take place as part of the festival program under the theme title, “Egypt is safe; able to combat terrorism”.


The festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Arab League, the Egyptian Tourism Development Authority, the Governorate of South Sinai Governorate, and the Russian, Chinese as well as Indonesian Cultural Centers.


The festival management has chosen the film “United Kingdom” nominated for several awards as the festival’s opening film.

“United Kingdom” was produced in the UK, Czech Republic and U.S. in 2016. The plot line, inspired by real events, centres on events taking place in the 1940s when a dark-skinned prince from Botswana married a white woman from London, which greatly affected his kingdom.