The following is a brief overview of the Alexandria Short Film Festival. For our reviews please click here.

In the winter of 2017, I returned to my hometown, Alexandria, for university. In the beginning, the city greeted me like a stranger whom I'd once had a passing encounter with, and as the seasons changed, I adjusted to the warmth in its air, and I wore the distinct scent of iodine on its shores wherever I went. A collection of memories have been immortalized since then. One memory I'm particularly fond of is of a summer’s day I'd spent with my father in my second year. We took the tram from the eastern end of the city at San Stephano station all the way to Al Raml Station. Inside the almost full cabin, my father shared some of his memories of his life growing up in Alexandria. Being a cinephile like him and a romantic at heart, I enjoyed hearing his stories about his cinematic experiences. As we disembarked and strolled the surrounding streets of the station, I took in the sight of the numerous busy vendors, restaurants, and most importantly, the theatres that still stand today such as Cinema Amir, Cinema Metro and Cinema Rio. Each of these theatres and others that have sadly closed their doors, held special memories of many local and international screenings that my father once attended in their halls since the late 1960’s. As my interest in Alexandria's cinema experience peaked, I learned that it had started long before my father's time.

I. The Opening Sequence: Unveiling the History.

In the nineteenth century, the city of Alexandria was the crown jewel of Egypt. Its port welcomed people of various ethnicities, nationalities and religious backgrounds into the country, deeming it as the perfect meeting place. Poets, artists, musicians as well as merchants and industrialists collectively navigated the ocean in search of Alexandria's Lighthouse. Arriving in a cosmopolitan hub that served as a beacon of tolerance and a rich soil for all creative and business endeavours. So it comes as no surprise that the bride of the Mediterranean saw the first ever screening of a motion picture in Egypt. The birth of cinema in Alexandria took place in November of 1896 at Café Zawani in the Toussoun Pasha Bourse, which now became The Horreya Center for Creativity. The French Lumière brothers premiered their short film to the zealous crowd, and a year later they came back to Alexandria to establish The Cinématographe Lumière, the first cinema theatre in Egypt. This marked the beginning of an era that would define Alexandria’s cultural importance for centuries to come.

The following years saw a surge in the art of filmmaking, not a fully formed industry yet, but more residents in Alexandria, mostly of French and Italian backgrounds, began to dabble in the promising medium. In 1906, the famous photographer duo Aziz and Dorés, Turkish and Italian respectively, established their cinema hall at Raml Station where Cinema Strand is now located. A year later, they made and produced the very first film shot in Egypt. A short documenting the Khedive's visit to the Mursi Abu Al-Abbas Mosque in Alexandria. They went on to document many national and social events that mainly catered to the aristocratic class.

Opening credit of *Barsoum Looking For a Job*

Fast forward to 1923, the Egyptian poet, filmmaker, and ex-lieutenant, Mohamed Bayoumi, The Father of Egyptian Cinema took the reins and made the first silent feature to be filmed, written and directed by an Egyptian titled Barsoum Looking for a Job. The comedy/drama portrayed a friendship between Barsoum (a Coptic played by Muslim actor Abdelhamid Zaki) and Sheikh Metwali (a Muslim played by Catholic Bishara Wakim), promoting religious tolerance and appealing to the masses of Egyptian society. In 1925, Bayoumi co-founded the Misr Company for Acting and Cinema which ten years later was transformed into the famous Studio Misr by economist Talaat Harb in Cairo, giving Umm Kulthum her cinematic debut in Wedad (1936) and producing many of the well-beloved classic Egyptian movies.

As the filmmaking industry bloomed and the era of silent films shape-shifted into musicals and light romantic comedies throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s, production companies and studios relocated to Cairo, attracting larger audiences and actors from all over the Arab world, cementing the following period till the 1960’s as The Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema. Despite the move towards Cairo, Alexandria remained the focal point through which many cinema pioneers saw the world around them and the beating heart that brought the seventh art in Egypt to life.

II. Prominent Names in Alexandrian Cinema:

The city continued to grant the world of cinema some of its most talented contributors. One cannot think of Alexandria and its romantic stubborn nature without Youssef Chahine's films coming to mind. An industry trailblazer recognised across the world, Chahine was born on the 25th of January of 1926 in Alexandria. His brand of storytelling had a unique mixture of warmth, fearlessness and honesty. Spanning across six decades, from his first film Baba Amin in 1950 until his last Chaos in 2007. Chahine soared through multiple genres encompassing a rich filmography that dove into history, comedy, politics, musicals, and documentaries.

Chahine used his creations to reflect the times as well as his personal experiences in his semi-autobiographical films (Alexandria, Why?, An Egyptian Story, Alexandria Again and Again, and Alexandria…New York). He left a legacy that showcases the diversity of Alexandria, defying censorship and eliciting controversy by tackling societal and political taboo topics. He also launched Egyptian actor and Oscar nominee Omar El Sherif’s (also an Alexandrian) career in the feature The Blazing Sun in 1954, and went on to make two more films together - Devil of the Desert, 1954 and Dark Waters, 1965.

*The Blazing Sun, 1954* featuring Faten Hamama and Omar El Sherif

Another Pioneer in Egyptian Cinema is Tawfiq Saleh, born on the 27th of October of 1926 in Alexandria. An english literature graduate that later went on to attain his filmmaking knowledge in Paris. Upon his return, he forged a special friendship with Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz and collaborated on what would become one of the hallmarks of Egyptian cinema Fools Alley, 1955. His films tackled themes like social injustice, political abuse and mirrored the struggle of the working class.

His masterful adaptation of Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani's Men Under the Sun titled The Dupes in 1972, earned him six international awards. The film narrates the struggle of three Palestinian men who had to forcefully flee their homeland after the Nakba in 1948, embarking on a perilous journey from Syria to Kuwait in the back of a tank truck. Saleh’s work was not appreciated during his time and was met with censorship and criticism, but today he is seen as a visionary in Egyptian realist cinema.

III. Cinema Culture in Alexandria Today: Alexandria's Short Film Festival.

ASFF Poster featuring Hypatia, a philosopher and female mathematician who lived in Alexandria. Poster design by Kyrellos Maximos.

Since the inception of Egyptian cinema on its shores, Alexandria's relationship with cinema remained firm. Celebrating its tenth edition this year, the Alexandria Short Film Festival (ASFF) serves as a portal for cinema lovers, storytellers, critics and artists from all backgrounds to connect with the world of motion pictures, specifically highlighting the short format. Filmmakers from all over the world rally to showcase their work in the city where it all began. The accepted films are given the opportunity to premiere in Cinema Metro for the first time either internationally or in the MENA region, competing across five categories: Student Film, Arab Film, Documentary, Animation and International Fiction. Adamant on creating a space for inclusivity, ASFF is known for its Mobile Cinema Workshop for Children, aiming to teach children how to wield their creative ideas, write scripts and all things filmmaking. In addition, ASFF will hold an experience that's unprecedented in Egypt, the “Cinema for the Visually Impaired’’ screening moderated by Moroccan media personality Hana Laidy. ASFF offers more activities including a variety of masterclasses at the Greco-Roman Museum that cover different aspects of filmmaking and acting, conducted and moderated by several Egyptian industry professionals, among them is esteemed actor Sayed Ragab (Father of the Bride, since 2017) and actress Salwa Mohammed Ali (The Walls of The Moon, 2015) , set designer Ahmed Fayez whose credits include Beit El-Rouby, 2023 and Al-Hashashin, 2024 and screenwriter/producer Mohamed Hefzy credited for Clash, 2016 and Sheikh Jackson, 2017.

Here at FilmSlop, we are thrilled to take you along as we cover the Alexandria Short Film Festival spanning from the 25th to the 30th of April in Cinema Metro, and to bring you more of the cinematic and cultural experience in Alexandria, one film at a time!

*To access the ASFF’s full program, scan the barcode below:

The Glimmering Wave: A Brief Chronicle of Alexandria's Cinema History, and the Tenth Edition of Alexandria's Short Film Festival

Does The Criterion Collection Care About Arab Cinema?

Frames of Resistance: Palestinian Solidarity