Director Sherif Arafa discusses the challenges of making “Halim
CAIRO: Since Good News For Films first announced its plans to produce a film depicting the life of Abdel Halim Hafez, the public has not underestimated the challenges taken on by the participating filmmakers.
Just to pinpoint a few of the recognized challenges: Finding a fresh take on the all-too-familiar story of Abdel Halim’s rise to fame, finding the proper cast to portray the real life characters and working with the leading actor, who, although dedicated, was diagnosed with an advanced stage of lung cancer.
“The biggest challenge is to make a story in a different way, says Halim’s director, Sherif Arafa. The life story of Abdel Halim Hafez, or simply Halim, is known to all, not just the avid fansm, and Arafa didn’t plan to put the story together in a merely appealing form but rather wanted to convey it in a modern style that would grab the audience s attention.
Arafa felt that a standard plotline penned in chronological order didn’t fit the story. “At the time [Halim] was struggling to get famous; he was singing national songs. The same goes when was falling in love; there were the national songs, Arafa explains. “They can t all go together. It can only be in the way I made [the film].
The result was a documentary-esque feature drama, dividing Halim’s life into chapters: his rise to fame, his nationalistic facet, his romantic facet and his relationship with his fans, authorities and fellow artists.
“In the first [scene], you would ask is this really a Halim concert or is it Zaki? The method and the movement of the camera helped give the documentary feel and I intended that, he explains. This, he feels, makes the film more believable.
But the non-linear approach could be tricky; on an international level it works for some directors and fails to deliver with others. “Halim wasn’t confusing and Arafa stresses that it isn’t because viewers know the story.
“I knew I was doing something that could [create] a mess. It could be confusing, he explains. “I was aware of to confusing you [the viewer], to make you feel the transitions . If the film was done in another way, you would have been confused and you wouldn t have empathized with anything.
“It s a new stage in a new cinematic form that I started . I try to change every now and then so I won t be confined to the same typecast, adds Arafa.
Arafa points to “Edhak El Sora Tetlaa Helwa ( Smile, It’ll be a Beautiful Picture ) as one of the turning points in his style. The film, which marked his second collaboration with Ahmed Zaki after El Deraga El Talta ( Third Class ), stood out from the background of Arafa’s previous collaborations with Adel Imam. While “Edhak was a lighthearted drama with a feel-good ending, the Arafa-Imam productions were laced with sarcasm and packed with sociopolitical messages. The films that topped the 1990s box office include “Al-Irhab Wal-Kabab ( Terrorism and Kabab ), “Tuyur Al-Zalam (“Birds of Darkness ) and “Al-Nawm Fil-Assal ( Sleeping in Honey ).
“Halim is yet another departure in style. Following real life stories would definitely find its way in his future work, he adds, with a human angle. But it all depends on the type of the production.
“Before making Halim, I didn t know I was going to make it this way, he says. “You keep thinking about the style and the method, which are defined by the type of drama you will make. It took him a long time to settle on the most appropriate technique, he adds.
But this wasn’t the end of the road for him; it was just the beginning. The film took four months for casting – there are over 90 actors in the film – followed by19 months in the making.
During the casting, he was looking for physical resemblance to Halim as well as acting ability. The acting style was the final determining factor, he says.
“You can never make a film about real characters and be able to change them, Arafa explains. “The most important thing for me was the soul, not the appearance. The looks dissolve eventually, but most importantly we don t just superficially imitate.
“Did you feel Abdel Halim at the end or not? This is what s important. How he thinks, how he talks, what s his opinion on different issues? These are what matter to me.
But there are limits. “There is percentage of how much you take from the real character, Arafa notes. “You have to take from the character but not in the way that people would feel that you are imitating.
It was intentional, Arafa continues, when Ahmed Zaki or his son Haitham directly imitated Halim. In the scenes where Halim would be lying, for example, the actor would intentionally imitate him to emphasize the insincerity, but in other scenes where Halim falls in love the actor would be leave out the imitation.
This dilemma about real life versus drama also loomed over the sociopolitical undertones. Arafa couldn’t include his voice as a director in the imbedded social or political messages. “I can t carry a personal opinion in a movie like this.
He was limited by what the real life characters did and felt. The controversy that shadowed Halim’s relations with Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Saddat was covered but from Halim’s point of view, not the director s.
“They sang to Abdel Nasser, they sang to the revolution and to a certain political situation. They felt what they felt during the movie. I didn t make up what happened to Salah Jahine. Salah Jahine was really depressed [following the 1967 defeat], says Arafa.
But his voice found room anyway. “I carry my personal view in what I saw what could be presented from Abdel Halim s life, in the sense that I pick these things in Halim s life to show.
