Five Egyptian movies compete in Oran festival

CAIRO – 31 July 2018: Five Egyptian movies are competing in Oran International Arabic Film Festival’s different competitions.

Two Egyptian short movies participate in the short movies competition, which are “Syndrome” directed by Nouran Tarek and “Nada" directed by Ahmed Yehia.

In the documentary competition, Egypt participates with two documentaries “Boody the Sumo Pharaoh” directed by Sara Riad and "El-Naht Fel-Zaman" (Sculpting in Time).

"El-Naht Fel-Zaman" received the Jury Award at the first edition of the Arab Cinema Festival (ACF) in Paris. The documentary recounts the life of acclaimed pioneering puppetry artist Nagi Shaker; it tackles Shaker’s various contributions in other areas, such as directing, design and fashion, throughout his 50-year long career.

"El-Naht Fel-Zaman" is directed Youssef Nasser and produced by RedStar.
Furthermore, the Egyptian movie “Photocopy” competes in Oran Festival feature movies competition. The film narrates the story of an elderly man who, upon his retirement, decides to open a photocopying shop. He begins to re-discover life, his love for his neighbor and the people around him.

The movie stars Mahmoud Hemeida, Sherine Reda, Farah Youssef, Aly Tayeb and Ahmed Dash, among others. It was written by Haitham Dabbour and directed by Tamer Ashry. "Photocopy" premiered at the first edition of GFF, and won El-Gouna Golden Star Award for Best Arabic Feature Narrative Film. The movie was also screened at the fifth International Arab Cinema Meetings in Marseille on November 22.

"Photocopy" was shown as the closing film in the Arabian Cinema Week in New York City on November 23. The film was also screened in the Cairo International Film Festival on Friday, November 24.

Egyptian journalist and "Photocopy" scriptwriter, Haitham Dabbour, previously stated in an interview with Egypt Today that he chose to present a love story between an elderly couple because this type of love stories “have not been well-presented in the Egyptian cinema.”

The script was nominated for the Sawiris Cultural Awards. Dabbour explained that he worked a lot on the script to develop it before reaching the final version. He began writing it in 2013 and finished a year later.

"Photocopy" tackles issues and problems facing the elderly, topics that are rarely addressed in Egyptian cinema. “The main challenge that faced me while writing such a different movie is to maintain high artistic sides and values and at the same time remain amusing for the audience so they would not get bored,” Dabbour explained.

The winners of the 11th edition of Oran International Arabic Film Festival’s prizes will be announced at the closing ceremony of the festival which will take place on Tuesday, July 31.

It is worth mentioning that the 11th edition of Oran International Arabic Film Festival honored Egyptian director Khaled Youssef, veteran comedian Mohamed Henedy and the late veteran Egyptian actress and singer Shadia.

The festival chose the Egyptian movie “Karma” to be the opening film of the festival. The movie revolves around two people who never cross paths, but have common life circumstances.