[Filmfestivalresearch] Fwd: In the Last Days of the City has been removed from Cairo International Film Festival

Jean-Michel Frodon jmfrodon at gmail.com
Sat Nov 5 09:06:51 CET 2016


Dear Friends, please read this message
best
Jean-Michel Frodon
http://blog.slate.fr/projection-publique
Professeur associé à Sciences-Po Paris
Membre du comité pédagogique de SPEAP
http://blogs.sciences-po.fr/speap/
Professorial Fellow, University of St. Andrews. Scotland
Professor of Global Cinema and Creative Cultures, IGCCC
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/globalcinema


Begin forwarded message:

*From: *Tamer El Said <elsaid.tamer at gmail.com>
*Subject: **In the Last Days of the City has been removed from Cairo
International Film Festival*
*Date: *November 4, 2016 at 5:42:31 PM GMT
*To: *Tamer ElSaid <elsaid.tamer at gmail.com>

Dearest friends,

I hope you are all well and I'm sorry for the crossing mail but we have
some time pressure here.

We’re basically under an act of sabotage from Cairo International Film
Festival (CIFF). They have quite incomprehensibly and suspiciously removed
our film *In the Last Days of the City* from the festival just weeks before
it was due to premiere. Over 270 Egyptian filmmakers and cultural figures
have signed a petition against the festival’s actions, demanding the
festival to respect its initial decision and screen the film within the
International Competition section as announced before. We are under a lot
of pressure and have been doing our best to sustain our campaign and fight,
within Egypt. It's clear now that it's not enough. We’re starting to gather
international signatures hoping they will help our voices to be heard. When
our film was first invited and accepted in CIFF, we were happy beyond
believe as that would have been the film's main chance of being seen in
Egypt and the Arab region considering the political and social situation we
are currently witnessing and living. It also meant a protection for the
people behind the film. Would you be willing to sign this petition in
solidarity with our film?

Needless to say, feel free to share this email or petition as widely as you
have time for, and if there is anyone in particular you feel we/I should
contact let me know. And please do not feel obliged to do anything at all.

The text of the petition is below and I attached to this email a basic 10
points fact sheet if you want to know more about what happened. You’ll also
find press quotes and more information if you scroll down. You can email me
to add your name, if you prefer to keep your email private. Otherwise you
can follow the directions below, or add your name directly to this online
petition
<https://www.change.org/p/cairo-international-film-festival-petition-to-screen-in-the-last-days-of-the-city-at-ciff-int-competition>
that
we just started. If you choose the online option, you are very welcome to
add your profession and institution in the comments if you can as there is
no field for that on this platform.

Thank you so much, always.

Tamer

——

"We, the undersigned, filmmakers, actors, producers,  programmers, artists,
curators, writers and lovers of cinema join our voices in support of our
fellow Egyptian filmmakers. We are shocked and dismayed by Cairo
International Film Festival's scandalous treatment of Tamer El Said’s 'In
the Last Days of the City’, and support the statement issued by over 270
Egyptian and Arab filmmakers and cultural figures demanding that you
reverse your decision.

We cannot see how and why an Egyptian film that has won critical acclaim
and kept its agreement with you to preserve its dearest premiere - it's
Egyptian, Middle East and North Africa premiere - should have its
invitation to participate in competition withdrawn weeks before the
festival begins. The reason you have supplied – that it has been to too
many international film festivals - is not convincing. You have accepted
non-Egyptian films to this year’s competition that have been to many
international film festivals, and even some that have already had MENA
premieres. In the Last Days of the City has broken none of your official
regulations. So why the sudden double standards?

We are also surprised that you would suggest that this is to uphold the
festival's position within FIAPF. If our films were accepted in any
festivals and suddenly removed at the last minute despite us keeping to our
agreements to participate, we would be in uproar.

We urge the festival to reverse its unprecedented decision and let ‘In the
Last Days of the City’ be seen by Egyptian audiences so it can be
celebrated in its home city the way we have celebrated it in our cities."


You can sign the petition directly by clicking on this link
<https://www.change.org/p/petition-against-cairo-film-festival-s-actions-towards-in-the-last-days-of-the-city>.
You are very welcome to add your profession and institution in the comments
if you can as there is no field for that on this platform. Alternatively
you can email nshoukry at mifegypt.com with the following details:


Name:

Profession/ Institution (if you want):

Country:


Below you will find key information about the film.


Thank you so much for your time and support.




----

*Press Quotes & Jury statements:*

“A plangent, multi-layered dirge to the sensory overload of Cairo and the
way it has irrevocably changed...  A melancholic love-hate poem to Cairo
and the role of filmmakers in any city in pain”.   *Jay Weissberg**,*
*Variety*


“Beautifully lensed and complexly edited in a dense patchwork of people,
feelings and events”. *Deborah Young*, *The Hollywood Reporter*


*"*Majestic... a lionhearted elegy for the Egyptian capital, artistic
heritage in the Arab world, inspired politics, and hope itself”.  *Kaelen
Wilson-Goldie**, Artforum  *


“A moving and extremely personal city symphony that takes its audience on a
journey connecting the most intimate to the state of the world we are
living today, a film from the heart”* Jury of** New Horizon International
Film festival**, Poland 2016.*


“Indirectly and with overflowing stylistic cunning, the film slyly presents
an entire region that has unjustly been in the shadows for far too long; a
region that currently lies in the center of attention, but is nevertheless
once again being obscured by clouds of ignorance and prejudice. This film
is an outstanding example of how, as Godard put it, cinema is "not about
making political films, but about making films politically”.  *Jury of the
Caligari Film Prize, Berlinale 2016*



*In the Last Days of the City - Key Information*
Director: Tamer El Said
Actors: Khalid Abdalla, Laila Samy, Hanan Youssef, Maryam Saleh, Hayder
Helo, Basim Hajar, Bassem Fayad
Script: Tamer El Said & Rasha Salti
Producers: Tamer El Said & Khalid Abdalla
Co-Producers: Hana Al Bayaty, Michel Balagué, Marcin Malaszczak & Cat
Villiers
Associate Producers: Louis Lewarne & Verena von Stackelberg
Director of Photography Bassem Fayad
Editors Mohamed A. Gawad, Vartan Avakian & Barbara Bossuet
Production Design: Salah Marei
Art Direction: Yasser El Husseiny
Costume: Zeina Kiwan
Music: Amélie Legrand & Victor Esïom
Sound Design: Victor Bresse
Sound Mix: Mikael Barre
Colour Grading: Jorge Piquer Rodriguez
Visual Effects: Unai Rosende

World Sales: Still Moving, Pierre Menahem
Distributors in Egypt: Zawya Distribution
Distributors in Germany: WOLF Distribution



*Synopsis *(From New Directors/ New Films)

This film within a film is a haunting yet lyrical chronicle of recent years
in the Arab world, where revolutions seemed to spark hope for change and
yield further instability in one stroke. The more things change, the more
they stay the same. Khalid Abdalla (*The Kite Runner*, *The Square*) plays
the protagonist of Tamer El Said’s ambitious feature debut, a filmmaker in
Cairo attempting to capture the zeitgeist of his city as the world changes
around him—from personal love and loss to the fall of the Mubarak regime.
Throughout, friends send footage and stories from Berlin, Baghdad, and
Beirut, creating a powerful, multilayered meditation on togetherness, the
tactile hold of cities, and the meaning of homeland. Shot in 2008 and
completed this year, the film explores the weight of cinematic images as
record and storytelling in an ongoing time of change.


*Awards:*


   - Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale, Germany 2016
   - Best Director at Buenos Aires International Film festival (BAFICI),
   Argentina 2016
   - Grand Prix of New Horizon Aires International Film festival, Poland
   2016.
   - Nominated for Asia Pacific Screen Award 2016


*Teaser*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBvKaWGFbQ

-- 
Tamer El Said
Filmmaker

+20 100 66 80 513
elsaid.tamer at gmail.com




-- 
Tamer El Said
Filmmaker

+20 100 66 80 513
elsaid.tamer at gmail.com




-- 
Tamer El Said
Filmmaker

+20 100 66 80 513
elsaid.tamer at gmail.com
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