Wednesday, October 10, 2018 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Cinema
In downtown Cairo in 2009, Khalid (Khalid Abdalla), a 35-year-old filmmaker struggles to make a film that captures the soul of his city while facing loss in his own life. With the help of his friends who send him footage from their lives in Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, he finds the strength to keep going through the difficulty and beauty of living in Cairo.
Jeff Reichert of Film Comment writes, "In the Last Days of the City was shot prior to the January 25 Revolution and the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and the seeds of revolt are present in nearly every frame. Protests against the regime mount, signs of encroaching radicalized Islamism dot cosmopolitan Cairo, Egypt wins a major soccer match. Said and DP Bassem Fayad’s fleet shooting places characters in and among these real-life scenes as they happen, much in the way Agnès Varda might do, further complicating the film’s interplay between fact and fiction."
In The Village Voice, Bilge Ebiri writes: "El Said’s rapturous images of Cairo — wide shots at night, handheld shots following Khalid into alleys and through bustling streets — create a striking portrait of a metropolis that is constantly changing. (You should, by the way, try to see this on the biggest screen you can find.)... What we’re really witnessing is how a city becomes a memory, how a physical home becomes a spiritual one, and how a man becomes a ghost."
Interview with Tamer El Said on Vimeo.
See In the Last Days of the City Facebook page here.
Selected awards for In the Last Days of the City:
Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale
Critics Award for Best Arab Film, Arab Cinema Center
Grand Prix of New Horizons International Film Festival
Grand Prix of Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes
Best Film, San Francisco Arab Film Festival
Best Director, Buenos Aires International Film festival (BAFICI)
Our screening will be introduced by GMU Professor Naglaa M Hussein, and will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Tamer El Said, moderated by Naglaa M Hussein and GMU Professor Nathaniel Greenberg.
Our event is sponsored by Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, Film and Media Studies, Film and Video Studies, Global Affairs and Global Programs, and the English Department.
Information: Cynthia Fuchs cfuchs@gmu.edu
or Nathaniel Greenberg ngreenbe@gmu.edu (703) 993-1825