A few days ago, I was having a conversation with esteemed critic Ahmad Ra fat Bahgat about the changing cultural and cinematic climate of Egypt within the last 36 years.
The 70s was the golden age of cultural life in Egypt, he sighed. Every week, special screenings for various world films was held in Metro cinema. Each week we were introduced to a new culture with special, different forms of artistic expression.
Through the years, this cultural environment has been radically destroyed, reinvented and resurrected. It s nowhere as flourishing as it used to be in the 70s and the type of audiences themselves has changed. But when compared to the last five or ten years, there s indeed a little growing cinematic revolution taking place in both Cairo and Alexandria.
The Ingmar Bergman film series held at the American University in Cairo started with limited audiences and ended up becoming one of the most successful cultural events of the year, attracting more people from different age groups with each screening film.
The multiple film festivals held by the independent film company Semat along with their documentary workshops also received unexpected success.
The weekly films shown by the major cultural centers in Egypt witnessed a large number of young ladies and gentlemen flocking to see a cinema that has little relation with Hollywood flicks.
In fact, it wasn t easy to find an empty seat at the contemporary German film week in the Artistic Creativity Center, the Spanish film festival and the special screenings of French Mavericks Jean Luc-Godrad s Breathless and Robert Bresson s retrospective at the French Cultural Center.
The different independent film festivals signaled the noticeable upraise of independent Egyptian cinema, heralding it as a strong force to reckon with in the future.
As for the Cairo International Film Festival, the mother of all cinematic events in Egypt, this was finally back to form after Dr Ezzat Abo Ouf took over the presidency almost five months ago from Sherif El-Shoubashy.
The festival committee s decision to choose low-profile films over European art blockbusters paid off, spawning some of the very best films shown in Egypt this year with significant commercial and critical success
But 2006 though will always be remembered as the year of The Yacoubian Building, the country s big budgeted monster smash.
All critics agree that Egyptian films remain in a state of critical slump despite their unprecedented box-office triumph. This is, for the most part, indisputable. However, the fact of the matter is Egyptian films are getting better.
Nearly 80 % of all Egyptian films are justly deemed to be utterly bad. That is true, but they re not as bad as the ones produced four or five years ago per se and the production values, along with the technical aspect of the films, have considerably improved over any cinematic era in Egyptian film history.
The success of Yacoubian, Wahed Men El Nas, (One of the People) and Awkat Faragh (Spare Time) has not only proved that dramatic entertainment can be as successful as the predictable comedic fairs, but paved the way for more serious, big-budgeted dramas.
Good News group, the producers of Yacoubian, also demonstrated how a clever marketing campaign can transcend Egypt s boundaries and penetrate the European market.
Ycaoubian was a hit all over Europe, particularly in France where it debuted at number five in the French box-office.
What all Egyptian films still lack however, are stories that communicate the reality of Egyptian society. The success of those three aforementioned films indicates that people are ready now to confront their reality with all its severe austerity.
This year will also be likely remembered for its lack of celebrity scandal.
The most covered event of the year in this regard involved pop singer and actor Tamer Hosni who was given a sentence of one year in prison after he attempted to skip military service.
The usual projects disputes between films and TV dramas crews have become so common that no one pays any attention to them anymore.
The award for the foremost and most talked about row goes to the makers and cast of the Egyptian TV serial flop Cinderella.
The fictional adaptation of the life of Egypt s most popular actress Soaad Hosni was blemished by conflicts between its director Samir Seif, its producer and writer Mamdouh El-Lithy and the serial stars Mona Zaki and Madhet Saleh.
The result was a farce that disgraced the legacy of the superstar.
Another different kind of argument erupted earlier in the year after producer Mohamed Ahsoub and scriptwriter Atef Bishay decided to produce the first Arabic film about the life of Jesus.
The Al Azhar institution declined to give any kind of authorization to shoot the film and referred the case to the Coptic Orthodox church to act as the only arbitrator over the issuing of the film.
Bishay declared later on that he faced lots of opposition from church figures and stated his disappointment about some of the narrow-minded members of the church who contributed to the execution of the project.
The Coptic Pope, the only one who possesses the authority to give the green light to the film, refused to announce the final verdict over the movie.
Finally, Egyptians found themselves, on several occasions, mourning the death of some of the country’s greatest talents in 2006.
Actors Abu Bakr Ezzat, Hamdy Gheeth and Magda El-Khateeb were among the country s most respected and revered actors in cinema, TV and theatre while Abdel Moniem Madbouly and Foaud El-Mohandes s death marked the end of the last great Egyptian comedic age these two geniuses represented.
There was no bigger loss though than the death of Egypt s greatest novelist Naguib Mahfouz whose works inspired some of the greatest films in Arab world history including Miramar, Cairo Trilogy, Thartharah Fawq Al-Nil (A Drift on the Nile), El Tarek (The Road) and El-Karnak and El Less Wal Kilab (The Thief and the Dogs) along with many, many other adaptations of his novels in addition to the screenplays he wrote in his early career.
Overall, 2006 has been a milestone year for Egyptian cinema despite everything. 2007 will have plenty of expectations to live up to but most probably Egyptians will have to wait till 2008 for the second big brake with the film Mohamed Ali.
