Arriaga: ‘Egypt like México full of contradictions, this feed creativity’

CAIRO – 25 November 2019: The 41st edition of Cairo International Film Festival organised a panel discussion entitled ‘’Mexico second Golden age’’ on November 25.

The panel was moderated by Egyptian film critic Mohamed Tarek and attended by the Mexican ambassador in Egypt and CIFF head Mohamed Hefzy.

Oscar-nominee screenwriter and director Guillermo Arriaga and producer, director and screen writer Gabriel Ripstein.

Arriaga said that he thought that being Mexican filmmaker brings something different.

‘’This is the first time in Egypt but it is a fascinating country in terms of people and culture’’ Arriaga.

The Mexican Oscar-nominee filmmaker said that the Mexican cinema golden age started at the 1960s.

‘’Mexico is one of the important countries around the world in terms of cinema tickets sold’’ Ripstein said.

Ripstein added that some Mexican films are very successful commercially and generate high revenues.

‘’Egypt like México full of contradictions and this feed creativity’’ Arriaga recounted.

Arriaga explained he is a novelist before he became a filmmaker. ‘’One of my main goals is to bring novelistic structures to cinema’’ Arriaga added.

Arriaga admitted that he learnt filmmaking by making films as he didn’t go to film schools. ‘’I always write based on life experience.’’

Arriaga narrated that when he was a university professor he used to tell his students not to be deep or politically oriented, just tell the story honestly.




‘’My advice to young filmmakers try to be stubborn and have clear conscious’’ Ripstein said at the end of the panel.

It is worth mentioning that CIFF chose Mexico to be the country in focus of this year edition.