Director Arturo Ripstein, who received the lifetime achievement award at the closing ceremony of the Cairo International Film Festival, says he cannot help but be what he is.
Based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Ripstein’s 1994 film “Principio Y Fin (“The Beginning and the End ) was screened outside of competition this year at the Cairo Film Festival.
“I cannot be more Mexican, said the director whose stories although inspired by the likes of Mahfouz are nevertheless set in Mexico.
Yet it is precisely in the local appeal and sensibilities of Mahfouz that the director finds a possibility for translation and adaptation. “If you want to be absolutely universal, said Ripstein, “you have to first be impossibly local.
While many a Nobel Prize winner is forgotten, Ripstein said Mahfouz was one of those “discovered by the world.
When she first came across the author, scriptwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego, also Ripstein’s wife, was impressed by how familiar and “amazingly similar his stories were.
The narrative, ingrained inside the streets and alleys of Cairo, is “very ours, said director Ripstein.
Scriptwriter Garciadiego calls “Principio Y Fin a story of a “family destroying itself by love. Following the death of her husband, the mother in the Botero family is left to fend for herself and her daughter and three sons.
Sacrifice is an overarching theme in the film, where all members forgo themselves placing their bet on the youngest, good-looking son.
Yet “all sacrifices are senseless in this film, Garciadiego told Daily News Egypt. The young Gaby (Ernesto Laguardia), the hope of the family, commits suicide at the end, with his sister. The oldest Guama (Alberto Estrella), who is shunned by the mother, comes as the “Dark Jesus in an attempt to redeem the family.
The movie carries a Biblical tone because that was “the only way to explain destiny, Garciadiego said. “We all have to sacrifice in order to succeed, she said.
Ripstein added that fruitless sacrifice was a “dark thought that made the story compelling. “It is certainly not easy to live with as a thought and that’s why it makes for a good narrative.
Even stylistically, Egyptian sentiment translates easily into Mexican cinema.
Watching old Arabic movies of the 50s and 60s, you “can make up a story easily without words, said Ripstein. Egyptian and Mexican cinema also coincide in the “use of melodrama and music.
Responding to insistent queries of why further instances of Egyptian narrative were not produced or directed in international cinema, Ripstein said Mexican and Egyptian cinema are both overlooked on the international circuit.
“We are invisible filmmakers, said Ripstein, adding “when I speak of invisibility, I must include Egyptian films.
“It is Biblical that one is never a prophet in one’s own land, said the Mexican director in response to a comment that he has gained more appreciation outside his native land.
“Even though I’m very honored to have the lifetime achievement award – which means that after that you are dead – I am still a working director, he said.
Ripstein concluded that he would pass to others more talented the issues of distribution. “It is not in my doing, said the director who “wants to make my own best possible film and quoting Alexander’s shield as advice to filmmakers, “to persist, without hope.
