Preserving Arab Antiquities

The ninth Conference of Arab Archaeologists took place in Egypt last month, under the auspices of Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League. The conference looked at over 100 research papers focusing mainly on ways to protect and restore Lebanese and Palestinian antiquities from Israeli aggression. The conference also looked at the havoc the American occupation has wreaked on Iraqi antiquities. The conference honored Sheikha Hussa Al-Sabah, the curator of the House of Islamic Antiquities in Kuwait. The participants’ recommendations highlighted the need for a database to connect Arab antiquarians and make their work accessible to each other.

Another World Music Award winner, Tunisian singer Latifa, who came home with the title in 2004, recently signed with Rotana Music for upcoming album releases. The deal was finalized in Beirut with the attendance of Salem El-Hindy, managing director of Rotana. Over the past 20 years, Latifa, who starred in one film, Youssef Chahine’s Sokoot Hansawar (Silence, We are Rolling) has released more than 23 albums under several music labels including La Reine, Mazzika and Rotana.

Apress conference held at the Egyptian Writers’ Union (EWU) headquarters last month — to announce the details of the conference for Naguib Mahfouz and the Arab Novel — turned into a discussion of the nominations for the upcoming elections for chairman of the Arab Writers’ Union.

Writer, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo and EWU Chairman Mohamed Salmawy later won the prestigious post. Salmawy had formerly announced he was not planning to nominate himself for the position, since it was tacitly agreed in the last Arab Union conference that it was Egypt’s turn to head the union. Rumors were circulating at the time that the chairman of the Jordanian writers’ union had planned to nominate himself.

Salmawy had told the press he had no intention of competing against another Arab country, since he believes all Arab countries to be equal. Yet Salmawy was unanimously voted as the chairman of the Arab union during the conference that took place last month. Salmawy’s victory was met with much joy by Egyptian writers and intellectuals, since this means that the union’s headquarters will move back to Egypt.

Friend to the stars Yehia Mohamed, who has made a living out of meeting Hollywood celebrities and taking photographs of him shaking their hands, has himself become a star of sorts after making his second appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The show managed to earn high ratings among audiences who laughed at Yaya’s jokes and even had Hollywood stars getting in touch with Yaya and telling him, “Man, I saw you on TV!”

Now, Yaya walks around prepared with a silver pen for dark photos and a black one for daylight shots in case he needs to sign any of the pictures he took with celebrities before becoming a star himself! Of course his trusty camera is always with him too. (SA)

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni’s explosive November 16 interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper seems to have raised the ire of many, and not just veiled women. Hosni’s comment that the veil is a step backward for the nation has opened the issue of the veil in Egypt yet again, with the minister refusing to apologize for his comments stating that he had “made no mistakes,” and declaring his willingness to resign rather than back down.

The banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood was the most vocal critic of Hosni following his interview, insisting that he must be relieved of his responsibilities should he refuse to apologize publicly. Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood Mahdi Akef said that the religious Egyptian people do not care what Hosni has to say because they are a religious people and despise such comments. The debate became more heated as Hosni participated in both an Al Jazeera program hosted by the veiled Khadija bint Qinna and in El-Mehwar’s popular talk show 90 Minutes.

“[The veil] differentiates between Muslims and Christians,” argued Hosni when hosted on 90 Minutes. “Is the veil the sixth pillar of Islam? The Egyptian constitution has nothing about women’s dress code,” he added, stressing that the veil isn’t a religious Islamic obligation.

Intellectuals and cultural figures such as actor Hussein Fahmy, writer and editor Iqbal Baraka, novelist Yousef El-Qaeed and playwright Ossama Anwar Okasha have all made statements supporting Hosni against the veil and in favor of freedom of expression.

First it was the Lebanese overrunning the Egyptian media industry, now it looks like the Syrians are coming too. After his runaway success in hit Ramadan serial Hada’ek El-Shaytan (Gardens of the Devil), Syrian actor Gamal Soliman is reportedly in talks for a number of new film roles. Another established Syrian actor, Ayman Zeidan, has recently been signed on to star in TV serial Talqat Fel-Hawaa (Shots in the Air). Written by actor Emad Rashad, the serial is produced by businessman Kamel Abou-Aly through his Albatross Company and will be directed by filmmaker Omar Abdel Aziz.

Meanwhile, Egyptian actors, foremost among them Ahmed Maher, are vocally campaigning against the casting of Syrian actors, especially in Upper Egyptian roles.

Melody TV topped Forbes Arabia’s Top 40 Arab Brand List last month as the biggest name in Egypt. The Forbes Arabia research team and British market research firm YouGov insisted the main requirement of the 80 Arab brands from various industries eligible for the list was that they be created and owned by an Arab company. With the help of an exclusive online survey made in the Arab countries, they were able to gauge which brands were most popular and trusted by consumers. Founded by Gamal Marwan, Melody Holding operates three free-to-air channels: Melody Hits, Arabia and Aflam, in addition to its music production company. The brand ranked number 33 overall in the Arab world.

Over in Dubai, Kheyana Shar’aiya (Legal Betrayal), the new thriller by Egyptian filmmaker Khaled Youssef, will premiere at the third Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) taking place from December 10-17. Scheduled for a local release next Eid, the movie tells the story of a rich young man (played by Youssef’s favorite star Hany Salama), who kills his wife and brother when he finds them in a compromising situation. The film will be screened in DIFF’s Arabian Night section.

New at the festival this year are three Arab Film Competitions for features, shorts and documentaries. Another sections of the festival will include Operation Cultural Bridge, which features movies that mend the rift in cross-cultural understanding between the Muslim world and the West in the post 9/11 era. Festivalgoers will be able to watch Kabul Express by writer/director Kabir Khan. The work is set in the weeks after 11 September, 2001, when journalists swept down on Afghanistan to witness the start of the US-led war.

Other foreign films will include The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival, Babel, which won Best Director at the Cannes Festival, Hollywoodland and Charlotte’s Web.

The opening film will be Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, a drama filmed at the real-life location of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles which is due for demolition this year. The cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone and Demi Moore.

The Festival will give tribute to American filmmaker Oliver Stone, Syrian filmmaker Nabil El-Maleh and Indian star Shah Rukh Khan. Other recognition, namely the Muhr prizes, will be given by a jury of Arab filmmakers and will total $325,000.

For the second year in a row, sultry Lebanese starlet Elissa has snatched the World Music Award for best selling artist in the Middle East for her latest album Bastanaak (Waiting for You). The much-followed award ceremony, held November 15 in London, was hosted by Lindsay Lohan. Returning to Lebanon, Elissa was given a special tribute in Downtown Beirut’s Rotana Café. Rumor has it Elissa’s next stop will be Cairo where she will use new songs and tunes prepared by Egyptian musicians for her next album due out next year.

Film director Inas El-Degeheidy rushed her latest film Mateegi Norqos (Let’s Dance) starring Youssra and Tamer Hagrass to theatrical release last month despite rumors that the film had been selected to be shown at the upcoming Cairo International Film Festival. El-Degheidy announced the sudden change of plan was because she didn’t want to compete with another dancing movie, Mafish Gheir Keda (That’s All There Is, see page 100 for an exclusive interview with the movie’s director Khaled El-Hagar), which apparently will be showing at the competition.

Movie insiders say the reason is more likely that Festival director Ezzat Abou-Ouf didn’t want to see a movie in which he co-stars playing in the festival he is heading. Despite the hype surrounding the movie and the popularity of its leading lady, Mateegi Norqos has hardly taken the box office by storm, possibly because of audiences feeling it could well fall short of Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez’s performance in the American version, Shall We Dance (2004)? or even that of Kôji Yakusho and Tamiyo Kusakari who star of the Japanese original.

After raking in a disappointing LE 18 million at the box office with Katkout (Chick), cutup comedian Mohammed Saad, who struck out with his previous films, has decided to drop film distributor Oscar/El-Massa/El-Nasr (aka Al-Fan Al-Sabee) and sign up with El-Sobky/El-Sherka El-Arabia (The Arabian Company) for his next outing, due summer 2007.

Saad, who has reportedly pocketed LE 9 million for next year’s film, blamed producer Wael Abdallah (of Oscar) for interfering in the shooting and the post-production process, a stake he claimed as his own a few movies ago. Interestingly, superstar comedian Mohammed Heneidy also signed up with El-Arabia several months ago after a series of flops. His first outing with them, Wesh Igram (Criminal Face), which failed to give Heneidy the boost he was looking for, also looks set to be his last, and the funnyman plans to sign up with Rotana Films next summer.

Meanwhile, back at the box office, Fan and Arabia have declared all-out war and have even stooped as low as keeping a lid on their daily takings. Granted, this was only done out of courtesy as no official authority keeping track of ticket sales currently exists in Egypt, but now even the media has been denied the juice.

Thinker and writer Mohamed Ouda passed away last month after a long struggle with illness. Ouda was one of Egypt’s staunchest Nasserists, whose motto in life was ‘You will never own anything. It is things that own you’ — a motto which earned him the title ‘the Egyptian Gandhi.’ He was born in 1920, working as a lawyer, before moving to politics and writing. Ouda had the distinction of having been jailed during the eras of King Farouk and Presidents Gamal Nasser and Anwar Sadat. He worked as the editor-in-chief of Al-Ahali newspaper, and helped found Al-Araby newspaper, the Nasserite Party’s mouthpiece. He wrote a number of important books, starting with The People’s Republic of China in 1955, and ending with his recent Cromer in Egypt. He was mourned by hundreds of his students and friends.

As if we couldn’t possibly live with-out yet another music channel, Egyptian-born businessman Ayman Tantaway who has been working in the UK for 26 years in banking and tourism, has decided we can’t. Set to compete with more than 20 others vying for airwaves on Nilesat, Tantawy is billing Smash TV as a completely new approach to music media. “When I looked through my options after visiting Dubai and Jordan Media Cities, I decided on our Media City because I am Egyptian and I felt more comfortable dealing with Nilesat. Moreover, the new music videos are really happening here but we will try to be more selective in picking up from the current releases,” Tantawy told et.  et