130 requests for movies to participate in LAFF

CAIRO – 6 January 2018: The Luxor African Film Festival management has received 130 requests for movies to be screened at the seventh edition of the festival.

Most of the movies deal with identity issues, the relation of Africans with their roots and their trials to remove themselves from affiliations with western society and some of which are historical, stated the Egyptian script writer Attia el-Dardery, Head of the Viewing Committee.

El-Dardery added that the committee will announce the final participating movies list after a few days.

The festival management is expected to announce the details of LAFF’s seventh edition in a press conference scheduled to take place by the end of January.

The management also decided to add a new competition to this year’s edition focusing on the works of cinema students in Egypt.


The special requirements to enter this competition are as follows: firstly, any applicant should be studying cinema and living in Egy;t, secondly, the participating movie should be produced in 2017, its duration should not exceed 30 minutes and the deadline for submitting the movie is January 20.


LAFF announced that launching such a competition is crucial because Egyptian cinema students are currently producing extremely creative movies worthy of special attention.


The president of the Luxor African Film Festival, Sayed Fouad, previously revealed that the seventh edition of the film festival will honor the veteran Egyptian actor Gamil Rateb and the renowned Senegalese director Moussa Toure.


Rateb was born in Cairo in 1926. He first appeared on screen in 1946 in the film, “I Am the East”. After a 20-year break from Egyptian cinema, Rateb later returned to the screens with the film "Al-Kaddab" (The Liar).


During his career the iconic actor appeared in French and Tunisian cinema. Rateb performed in many distinguished international movies such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Trapeze” and “To Commit a Murder”, amongst others.


Toure was born in Senegal in 1958. In 1987, he established his production company named “Les Films du Crocodile” that funded a number of important documentaries. Toure released his successful first feature movie in 1991, entitled “Toubab Bi”.


In 2002, he launched the Moussa Invite Film Festival which is a showcase for African documentaries. One of his important achievements was directing “La Pirogue”, a semi-documentary movie in 2012.


The seventh annual Luxor African Film Festival will kick off on March 10, 2018. It’s poster of bears the face of the late African icon Nelson Mandela.


Fouad explained that he chose Mandela because his achievements are a symbol of struggle and contention for one’s homeland and the people who inhabit the African continent and the whole world. The seventh edition of the festival coincides with what would have been Mandela's centennial birthday; he was born in July 1918 and died in December 2013.


The poster takes the shape of the African continent, the main focus of the festival’s content. The festival will feature a number of films about the life and struggle of Mandela. The festival poster was originally designed by Ahmed Seyam and was used in the third edition of the festival; it was extremely admired by festival guests at that time.


The LAFF was founded and evaluated by the Youth Artists Foundation under the auspices and support of the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Luxor governorate and the Film Syndicate.