11 December 2010
CAIRO: The 34th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) drew to a close at the city’s Opera House Thursday with a gala-awards ceremony that became a salute to the Egyptian film industry and, in effect, the city of Alexandria.
For the first time in 14 years, the Golden Pyramid for best film in CIFF’s International Completion went to an Egyptian film, Khaled al-Haggar’s “Al-Shooq” (Lust). The decision came as a shock to some critics at the festival, for whom it was not the best Egyptian film in competition, let alone the best film.
One of Egypt’s two completion films to be set in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, “Al-Shooq” is a melodrama about a destitute mother of three named Umm Shooq (Sawsan Badr). After losing her young son to kidney failure, whose treatment she cannot finance, Umm Shooq is transformed into a manipulative capitalist and, ultimately, destroyed.
The top prize in CIFF’s Arab Film Competition went to another Egyptian film, Ahmad Abdulla’s “Microphone,” a critical and audience favorite that took the top prize at the Carthage film festival earlier this year. “Microphone” depicts the story of the return of a young expat Egyptian (Khaled Abu Naga) to Alexandria and his discovery of the city’s thriving, alternative youth art and music scene.
In CIFF’s International Digital Film Competition, the top award went to “Joy” by Dutch writer-director Mike De Jong, a story about a young woman’s search for her biological mother.
Bulgaria’s Svetoslav Ovcharov took two awards for his film “Voice Over” – the International Competition’s Best Director prize and the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize.
Lebanon’s George Hachem, who wrote “Stray Bullet,” shared the prize for Best Script with Iraq’s Mohammad al-Daradji, co-writer of “Son of Babylon.”
The award for Best Female Actor was shared by Badr, the star of “Al-Shooq,” and the iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert, for her role in “Copacabana.”
The Best Actor award was also shared. Egypt’s Amr Waked and Italy’s Alessandro Gassman were lauded for their performances in “Il Padre E Lo Straniero,” (The Father and the Foreigner), by Italian director Ricky Tognazzi.
Earlier in CIFF, Cairo Film Connections selected the best of the 10 scripts being considered for pre-production funding. Egyptian director Ayten Amin took the $18,000 prize for her script “69 Messaha” (69 Al-Mesaha Square), a comedy about a 62-year-old man with a terminal illness. – The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
