LAFF to kick off on Mar.15 at Karnak temple

CAIRO – 15 March 2019: The eighth edition of the Luxor African Film Festival will kick off on March 15 at Karnak temple in Luxor.

The opening ceremony will be attended by Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem, Luxor Governor Mostafa Alham and a number of foreign ambassdors.

The eighth edition of Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) will honour seven prominent African cinematic figures, including two from Egypt, for significantly enriching the African cinema.

The honourees are renowned Egyptian actress Lebleba, Egyptian star Asser Yassin, veteran Burkinabé filmmaker Idrissa Ouédraogo, Chadi director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, tBurkinabe director Fanta Régina Nacro and famed Algerian producer Dora Bouchoucha Fourati.

The eighth edition of LAFF will be held from March 10 to 21, 2019 and bears the name of Burkinabé filmmaker Idrissa Ouédraogo.

LAFF higher committee consists of LAFF Executive Director Azza al-Husseini, LAFF President Sayed Fouad, writer Yusuf al-Qaid, producer Jabi Khouri, Egyptian actress Salwa Mohamed Ali, and actor Sabry Fawaz; the committee reviews the eighth edition’s technical plan and events.

LAFF management chose veteran actor Mahmoud Hemeida to be the honorary president of the upcoming edition.

In the same context, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem previously stressed the importance of the festival in boosting links between African countries and Egypt through cinema and culture.

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

In its seventh edition, LAFF was held from 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 Abdel Dayem and Luxor Governor Mohamed Badr. The famous Egyptian band Black Theama – whose music includes Nubian rhythms, reggae, hip-hop and other African styles – performed in the opening ceremony of the seventh edition.

The South Valley University and Luxor African Film Festival decided to extend the festival to be held in the university located in Qenna.

A group of stars will visit the university, including Lebleba, who will be honored by the South Valley University; Salwa Mohamed Ali; Tarek Abdel Aziz and Sabri Fouad.

Vice President of the university Mohammed Badran announced that the artistic forum in Qenna will come in conjunction with the festival’s events in Luxor.

A series of short and feature films will screen at the open theatre of the university for students of different universities participating in the artistic forum, which runs from March 16-21.

Numerous workshops and artistic symposiums will also be held by the festival’s president, Sayed Fouad, in the faculties of Tourism and Hotels, Fine Arts, Computer and Information Sciences, Alsun, Antiquities, in South Valley University in Luxor.

About Asser Yassin
From engineering classes at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and onto the university’s stage, Asser Yassin was spotted by director Khairy Beshara.

But he has come a long way from AUC productions, and has since become one of the leading Egyptian actors on both the small and the big screens.

Through a diverse portfolio, Yassin has proved he is an artist of many talents, from one of his first challenging roles in "Zay El Naharda" (Like Today) in 2008, where he played the role of a drug addict who made us both love and hate him, and all the way to his latest series "30 Youm" (30 Days), where he so meticulously showed us the drastic changes of his character throughout the month.

In between, he perfected a stutter in "Rasayel El Bahr" (Messages from the Sea) in 2010 and then showed us his comic abilities in "Bebo w Beshir" in 2011.

Always a hard worker seeking new challenges, Yassin has also been assuming the director’s chair, working first in 2016 on the video clip of Abu’s "Ahwak" (I Love You) song, featuring a retro vibe evoking old Agamy days on the beaches of North Coast’s Marassi, and now the video clip for the latest Wust El Balad song "El Ekhtelaf El Motalef" (Our Familiar Differences).

His latest work as a director has created quite the social media buzz, featuring an unconventional storyline and a rather quirky vibe. Yassin's latest movie "Turab el Mass" (Diamond Dust) achieved a huge success.