Golden Pharaonic Processions for the Opening night of Luxor African Film Festival.

Yesterday, Tuesday 21 February, was the night of the opening of the 1st run of Luxor African Film Festival in Luxor. A magical night with a huge number of media, art and society celebrities attended as well as Dr. Shaker Abd El Hamid, the Minister of Culture who started the ceremony alongside Luxor Governor Dr. Ezzat Saad. The guests arrived at the private marina of Luxor temple in golden pharaonic processions after a 40 minutes Nile Cruise. They were welcomed by the most famous Luxor Folkloric bands such as Rango, Toshkee and other bands. Artists like Yosra, Khaled Yousef, Laila Elwi, Hani Ramzi, Hend Sabri, Lebliba, Mohamed Khan, Hani Salama, Mahmoud Himeida and Sabri Fawaz were amongst the guests. Festival President Sayid Foad opened the ceremony with a speech where he dedicated its first run to the late Radwan Al Kashef where his daughter, actress Aida Al Kashef, accepted the festival’s shield. He also dedicated it to the late Sotigui Kouyaté who was one of the first Burkinabé actors. In his speech, Foad said that this festival is a fruit of the 25 Jan revolution which was also mentioned by the Governor’s speech. 37 African countries are participating with more than 90 films and on the side of the festival there will be three workshops for directing, cinematography and script writing where 33 directors and script writers from 16 countries are participating. The opening film was “Teza” by the Ethiopian director Haile Gerima which is going to be honored in the festival with Director Daood Abd El Sayyid.