‘You Will Die at Twenty’, ‘Talking About Trees’ and ‘Exam’ Win Golden Stars, and ‘Cinema for Humanity’ Award Goes to Ladj Ly’s Les MisérablesEl Gouna Film Festival concluded its third edition with a closing ceremony where the award-winning films were announced, with total award value at Us$224,000.
The winners were as follows.
Watch the Awards on Euronews here.
Feature Narrative Competition
El Gouna Golden Star for Narrative Film: You Will Die at Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala. See my review.
El Gouna Silver Star for Narrative Film: Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa
El Gouna Bronze Star for Narrative Film: Adam by Maryam Touzani. See my review.
El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film: Papicha by Mounia Meddour
El Gouna Star for the Best Actor: Bartosz Bielenia, Corpus Christi
El Gouna Star for the Best Actress: Hend Sabry, Noura’s Dream
The gritty, Tunisian film tells the story...
The winners were as follows.
Watch the Awards on Euronews here.
Feature Narrative Competition
El Gouna Golden Star for Narrative Film: You Will Die at Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala. See my review.
El Gouna Silver Star for Narrative Film: Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa
El Gouna Bronze Star for Narrative Film: Adam by Maryam Touzani. See my review.
El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film: Papicha by Mounia Meddour
El Gouna Star for the Best Actor: Bartosz Bielenia, Corpus Christi
El Gouna Star for the Best Actress: Hend Sabry, Noura’s Dream
The gritty, Tunisian film tells the story...
- 10/5/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Had it been created in the 1950s, competition entry "Al Masir" might have been a blockbuster. In the 1990s, it's a bit of a bust. With the look of a Cecil B. DeMille and Stanley Donen collaboration, this movie can't decide if it wants to be a serious historical piece or a musical production. Directed by Egyptian Youseff Chanine, this film about a 12th-century philosopher has little to offer audiences west of the Middle East.
The film is rife with civil strife in medieval Spain where the Arab philosopher Averroes once lived. Averroes serves as the chief judge of the court of the Caliph Al-Mansur until the fundamentalist Muslims come into favor. Averroes' books are then banned and burned, but not before many are smuggled out of the country for posterity. Like almost all ambitious historical movies, this story contains sibling rivalry, political intrigue, murder, romance and war.
"Al Masir" (Destiny) does have at least one point to make with modern audiences. To some extent, it is a satire of the growing number of intolerant fundamentalist sects both east and west of the Nile.
Chanine's last movie, "L'emigre", was banned on the suspect ground that it was illegal in his homeland to portray a prophet on the screen. Perhaps DeMille himself would have been attracted to this script if his work had suffered a similar fate 40 years ago.
Not much can be said for the singing or acting, though the film is fun to watch with its musical numbers, grand sets and 1950ish camera work. Production designer Hamed Hemdane and costumer Nahed Nasrallah deserve mention for doing a fine job in their re-creation of 12th-century Cordoba. Choreographer Walid Aouni gets a sympathetic nod for his semi-successful staging of a musical in a movie purporting to be a period piece.
AL MASIR
In competition
Ognon Pictures and
Misr International Films
Director Youseff Chahine
Executive producers Humbert Balsan,
Gabiel Khoury
Production manager Hicham Soliman
Assistant directors Nadia Kamel, Iman Haddad
Screenwriters Youseff Chahine,
Khaled Youseff
Director of photography Mohsen Nasr
Production designer Hamed Hemdane
Editor Rachida Abdel Salam
Cast:
Averroes Nour El Cherif
The gypsy woman Laila Eloui
The Caliph Mahmoud Hemeida
Averroes' wife Safia El Emary
The Bard Mohamed Mounir
The Crown Prince Khaled El Nabaoui
The Caliph's brother Seif Abdel Rahman
Borhan Abdallah Mahmoud
Cheikh Riad Ahmed Fouad Selim
Emir of the sect Magdi Idris
Badr Ahmed Moukhtar
Manuella's mother Cherifa Maher
El Razi Rayek Azzab
Gaafar Hassan El Adl
Abdhalla Hani Salama
Running time -- 135 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film is rife with civil strife in medieval Spain where the Arab philosopher Averroes once lived. Averroes serves as the chief judge of the court of the Caliph Al-Mansur until the fundamentalist Muslims come into favor. Averroes' books are then banned and burned, but not before many are smuggled out of the country for posterity. Like almost all ambitious historical movies, this story contains sibling rivalry, political intrigue, murder, romance and war.
"Al Masir" (Destiny) does have at least one point to make with modern audiences. To some extent, it is a satire of the growing number of intolerant fundamentalist sects both east and west of the Nile.
Chanine's last movie, "L'emigre", was banned on the suspect ground that it was illegal in his homeland to portray a prophet on the screen. Perhaps DeMille himself would have been attracted to this script if his work had suffered a similar fate 40 years ago.
Not much can be said for the singing or acting, though the film is fun to watch with its musical numbers, grand sets and 1950ish camera work. Production designer Hamed Hemdane and costumer Nahed Nasrallah deserve mention for doing a fine job in their re-creation of 12th-century Cordoba. Choreographer Walid Aouni gets a sympathetic nod for his semi-successful staging of a musical in a movie purporting to be a period piece.
AL MASIR
In competition
Ognon Pictures and
Misr International Films
Director Youseff Chahine
Executive producers Humbert Balsan,
Gabiel Khoury
Production manager Hicham Soliman
Assistant directors Nadia Kamel, Iman Haddad
Screenwriters Youseff Chahine,
Khaled Youseff
Director of photography Mohsen Nasr
Production designer Hamed Hemdane
Editor Rachida Abdel Salam
Cast:
Averroes Nour El Cherif
The gypsy woman Laila Eloui
The Caliph Mahmoud Hemeida
Averroes' wife Safia El Emary
The Bard Mohamed Mounir
The Crown Prince Khaled El Nabaoui
The Caliph's brother Seif Abdel Rahman
Borhan Abdallah Mahmoud
Cheikh Riad Ahmed Fouad Selim
Emir of the sect Magdi Idris
Badr Ahmed Moukhtar
Manuella's mother Cherifa Maher
El Razi Rayek Azzab
Gaafar Hassan El Adl
Abdhalla Hani Salama
Running time -- 135 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/16/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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