National Egyptian Film Festival Opens Today, Screening “Ala Defaf El Neel”

Today is theopening of the 17th National Egyptian Film Festival whichruns till the 26th of November. The festival screens 118films between features and documentaries produced in 2010/2011,competing on awards sum of 572,000 E.P. .

The openingnight will start with a show that manifests the stages that theEgyptian Cinema went through and the integrity that combines thosestages. The show is directed by Mahmoud Hagag. After, will be thescreening for “A'la Defaf el Neel” (On the Nile's Banks) for the first time since itsproduction, fifty years ago. The movie stars Shadia and Kamal El Shanawi and is directed by Conakahira. It's an Egyptian-Japanesejoint production from 1963.

This year'sround of the festival honors special Egyptian workers in the field,among them: Actress Elham Shaheen, cinematographer Tarek El Tilmisany, director Said Marzouk and movie critic Aly Abu Shady whowas the head of the festival for many past rounds. The festival willpublish a book about the honored artists, the book will bedistributed during the opening night.