Hommage au Caire au cinéaste algérien Ahmed Rachedi

[Al-khiyal]

Hommage au Caire au cinéaste algérien Ahmed Rachedi

LE CAIRE, Mercredi 7 Octobre 2009 -- Le cinéaste algérien Ahmed Rachedi sera honoré au 33e festival international du cinéma du Caire prévu à partir du 10 novembre dans le cadre d'un hommage au cinéma algérien, a annoncé lundi la direction du festival. La haute commission du festival international du cinéma du Caire a décidé, lors d'une réunion présidée par le ministre égyptien de la Culture Farouk Hosni, de rendre hommage au cinéma algérien.

[Al-khiyal]

Festival international du Caire :
12 films algériens projetés en hommage au cinéma algérien

LE CAIRE, Vendredi 9 Octobre 2009 -- Douze films algériens seront projetés dans le cadre de la 33 édition du festival international du Caire en hommage au cinéma algérien. Une pléiade de stars et de réalisateurs algériens seront conviés à ce rendez-vous où seront projetés 12 des plus récents films algériens. Il s'agit du film Mustapha Ben Boulaid de Ahmed Rachdi, réalisé en 2009 qui retrace la vie et l'itinéraire révolutionnaire de cet héros national, l'un des dirigeant de la Révolution de 1954.

[Al-khiyal]

Hommage au cinéaste Ahmed Rachedi au festival international du cinéma du Caire

LE CAIRE, Jeudi 12 Novembre 2009 -- Un hommage a été rendu mardi soir au réalisateur algérien Ahmed Rachedi au Caire lors de la cérémonie d'ouverture de la 33e édition du festival international du cinéma du Caire. Dans une déclaration à l'APS, Ahmed Rachedi a estimé que cet hommage était une marque de "considération" pour le cinéma algérien soulignant que ce genre de manifestations permettait d'"évaluer" les œuvres cinématographiques algériennes. Pour Ahmed Rachedi le festival constitue une occasion de faire connaître le cinéma algérien qui est à l'honneur à cette manifestation à travers une rétrospective de films algériens et la présence de cinéastes algériens dans le jury.

[Al-khiyal]

Dialects spark debate at Cairo film festival

November 19, 2009 -- The use of local dialects on the big screen is arousing strong passions among film-makers, journalists and critics at this year's Cairo International Film Festival, if a recent seminar is any indication. Despite earning high honours at the festival, Algerian film-makers in particular came in for some fierce dialect-related criticism at the Friday (November 13th) seminar on their industry. Some seminar participants had strong objections to Algerian cinema's blend of colloquial Arabic and French.

However, Algerian director Lyes Salem fired back, saying: "The dialect is part of [my films'] identity, and diversity is an enriching factor. When I use Algerian dialect mixed with French or Berber vocabulary, that doesn't mean I've given up my identity." "Don't forget that we are Maghreb, Arab, Mediterranean and African at the same time, and that is an enriching factor rarely found in any other place in the world," added Salem, whose work Masquerades was named best film at the festival in 2008.

Algeria has a large presence in this year's event, with screenings set for 12 films. Algerian director Ahmed Rachedi has been honoured, and Salem himself is a member of the festival jury. Others came to the defence of local accents, including Algerian actor and director Belgacem Hadjaj, who expressed pride in "our Algerian dialect". For his part, Abdelkarim Bahloul, the first Algerian director to make a film in Tamazight, said language itself "isn't a barrier; it's one of the components of any cinematic work".

Other critics levelled the charge that the use of dialects in the Maghreb cinema was preventing it from enjoying wider popularity in the rest of the Arab world. On this point, Algeria found an ally in Moroccan film critic Chrifa Hawat, who called critics' invocation of the "dialect factor" simply "unacceptable". "[W]e in the Maghreb understand very well the Egyptian dialect, and the Syrian dialect, and this is because of our openness to them – it's something that the Maghreb audience has gotten used to. The Maghreb cinema, meanwhile, is almost non-existent for you [non-Maghreb people], and you watch it only on special occasions, such as annual festivals." The Algerian cinema industry "has now become a significant force, both in quantity and quality, and has a strong presence in the world", added Hawat.

Some of the sharpest criticism of the use of dialects came from Egyptians. Nevertheless, Egyptian film critic Khairia Bachlawi called Algerian cinema "the tempting fruit that doesn't come to us easily, and which we only know through these [festivals], rather than through theatres." "The seventh art in Algeria sustained a severe setback in the last decade because of brain drain and the flight of people with technical capacity from the sway of violence and terrorism, which haunted Algeria," acknowledged Bachlawi.

The head of the Euro-Arab Cinema Society in Paris, Magda Wacef, echoed Bachlawi, saying that the Algerian cinema "is enjoying its best days now, after a period in which Algerian film-makers almost stopped turning out new work due to the years of terrorism, in which extremists chased all the creative people out of Algeria". In the context of this cinematic revival, the representative of the Algerian Ministry of Culture, Zahia Ben Cheikh, talked about the government's new promotional strategy. The new steps include revising outdated laws governing the industry. Another hoped-for catalyst is funding: according to Ben Cheikh, the ministry has recently funded 27 films in various genres.