All you need to know about LAFF

CAIRO – 16 March 2018: The seventh edition of the Luxor African Film Festival kicked of on March 16-22 under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at the Temple of Deir al-Bahri in Luxor.

The festival’s opening ceremony was attended by Egyptian Minister of Culture Ines Abdel Dayem and Luxor Governor Mohamed Badr. The famous Egyptian band Black Theama – whose musical genre includes different styles, including Nubian rhythms, reggae, hip-hop and other African styles – performed in the opening ceremony.

The festival displayed a recorded message by acclaimed Lebanese singer Majida el Roumi celebrating the passage of 10 years from the death of late great international Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. Roumi explained in the message details about her strong relationship with Chahine and their cooperation in the movie “Awdat al Ibn al Dal” (The Return of the Prodigal Son).


The seventh edition of the film festival honored veteran Egyptian actor Gamil Rateb, Egyptian actress Ghada Adel and renowned Senegalese director Moussa Toure.

The festival’s management decided to add a new competition to its seventh edition for cinema students in Egypt.

They announced special requirements to enter this competition. First, any applicant should be studying cinema and living in Egypt. Secondly, the participating movie should be produced in 2017, its duration should not exceed 30 minutes and the deadline for submitting the movie was January 20.

The management announced that launching such a competition is a must, because Egyptian cinema students are currently producing extremely creative movies worth a special competition.


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 screen with the film "Al-Kaddab" (The Liar).

The iconic actor also appeared in French and Tunisian cinema. Rateb performed in a lot of distinguished international movies, such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Trapeze” and “To Commit a Murder”, among others.

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

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

The poster of the festival beared 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 festival will feature a number of films about the life and struggle of Mandela.

The poster takes the shape of the Africa continent, which is the festival's top priority. It 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 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.