São Paulo – Egyptian movie director Ahmad Rashwan will among the attractions of the second phase of the 7th Arab World Cinema Exhibit in the city of São Paulo, to take place at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centre (CCBB) starting next Tuesday (17). The director is coming to Brazil to promote movie “Born on the 25th of January”, which is part of the Arab Spring exhibit. The documentary shows, in several points of view, the start of the revolution that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The protests began on January 25th, 2011.
This is the first time the movie will be shown in Brazil. According to Soraya Smaili, the cultural director at the Arab Culture Institute (Icarabe), the promoter of the fair, “Born on the 25th of January” was shown at Berlin Festival this year, with great acceptance and repercussion. It was after the event that the Icarabe decided to invite the director to come to Brazil to show his production here. According to Smaili, Rashwan’s trip will also include the support of the government of Egypt as well as the support of the organizers of the exhibit itself.
The exhibit will include 20 movies, to be shown at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centre. Some of them were not included in the first part. Among these movies is “Born on the 25th of January” and “Chronicle of the Years of Fire”, an Algerian production of 1975 that is a sentimental record of the facts that resulted in the Algerian war of independence against France. “How Much I Love You”, an Algerian film of 1985, has also never been seen before and covers the theme of agriculture in colonized Algeria. “Viva Didou!” dates back to 1971 and covers Algeria after the colonial period.
The latter two titles, according to Smaili, are rare in Algeria and in the Arab world as they are films that were recovered. According to Smaili, they were obtained by Icarabe alongside the Algerian Movie Library, with the assistance of the embassy of Algeria in Brasília. “Chronicle of the Years of Fire”, in turn, won the Golden Lion at Cannes in 1975.
Also included in the CCBB exhibition are Brazilian productions like “Constantino” and “Sobre futebol e barreiras”. The former, by Otávio Cury, tells the story of the director’s forefathers who find a book written by his grandfather. The second, by Arturo Hartmann, João Carlos Assumpção, José Menezes and Lucas Justiniano, tells the story of football, of Palestinians and Israelis, during the 2010 World Cup (view the movie trailer below).
Smaili says that Arab themes are more and more present in Brazilian cinema productions and says she believes that this is partly due to the Icarabe’s efforts, showing more cinema from the region and the cultural ties between Brazil and the Arab world. This, according to her, should gain in intensity in coming years. These first movies, in fact, says Smaili, are not reflexes of the Arab Spring, as the productions take some time to be prepared. The movies in the exhibit, in fact, were propositions prior to the social movement in the region.
The 7th Arab World Cinema Exhibit as a whole has 32 productions, part of them included in exhibit “Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now”, presented by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York in 2010, 2011 and 2012, always in months of November. The exhibition of this year has not yet taken place. The curator of the exhibition in New York is by Rahsa Salti, a leader in the Arab world, together with Jytte Jensen. Salti, who is Lebanese, is also the Icarabe curator in Brazil.
Of the 20 movies that are being exhibited at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centre, only four are not part of the “Mapping Subjectivity”, said Smaili. Due to these relations with the MoMA exhibition, the 7th Arab World Cinema Exhibit has a tone of experimentation. But experimentation not in the amateur respect, but in new forms of narratives. This is the case with “Chronicle of the Years of Fire” which comes from the point of view of Algerian farmers.
The 7th Arab World Cinema Exhibit is promoted by the Icarabe alongside the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. It also pays homage to Aziz Ab’Saber, a Brazilian geographer of Arab descent, honorary president of the Icarabe up to his death, in March this year. The first part of this exhibition in São Paulo began on June 26th and went up to June 10th. The films could be seen at CineSesc, Cinemateca and Galeria Olido. Cultural direction and executive production of the event is in the hands of Soraya Smaili and Nagila Guimarães.
The chat with Egyptian director Ahmad Ashwan should take place on July 21st, at 7:30 pm, at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Centre. There should also be a debate with director Otávio Cury, at the opening of the fair, on the 17th of July, at 7:30 pm.
*Translated by Mark Ament
