The Last Days of the City, a feature film by the Egyptian director, screenwriter and film producer Tamer El Said, was screened during the recent Berlin Film Festival, now in its 66th year, as one of the films selected for the festival’s new cinema forum.
El Said received a production grant from the Culture Resource in 2008 to support the production his first fiction feature, A Long Film on Sorrow. The title was subsequently changed to The Last Days of the City.
The film both epitomises and realises the aims of the Production Awards program of Culture Resource: it is groundbreaking, transcends borders, and helps present and represent the culture of the Arab region to international audiences.
The Production Awards program seeks to support and encourage a new generation of Arab artists and writers, below the age of 35, and to distribute and circulate their creative output in cultural spaces throughout the Arab region. It is an endeavour that benefits the creators, their audiences and their societies as a whole. 145 grants have been awarded since the program was first launched.
It took three years of work to write the screenplay and shoot the film, the first production by a company consisting of Tamer el-Said, Khaled Abdalla, the Lebanese photographer Bassem Fayad along with other members of the cast and crew. Filmed in Cairo, Beirut, Berlin and Baghdad, the narrative opens in 2006 at the time of the Beni Soueif fire. At the time, the working title of the film was The Events of the Ninth Month before changing to A Long Film on Sorrow and then The Last Days of the City.
The film is primarily set in downtown Cairo and centers on Khaled, who is trying to make a film that captures the spirit of this city while simultaneously contending with the possibility of being expelled from his flat and facing problems with the woman he loves who is leaving him. The character Khaled experiences the transformations of Cairo, as well as its faded magic which has been subdued by the forces of repression, ignorance and extremism. Apart from the two main protagonists, Khaled and his girlfriend, all the other characters in the film play themselves.
With screenplay by Rasha Salti and Tamer el-Said, the film is produced by Tamer el-Said and Khaled Abdallah, and co-produced by Hana Al Bayaty, Michel Balague, Marcin Malaszczak and Cat Villiers. It is the last work of the late film artist and production designer Salah Marei who, together with Yasser El Husseiny, selected the locations and oversaw scenery details such as lighting and the colour of the walls and furniture with an eye to how they match the complexions of the main characters. Other crew members included Bassem Fayad on the camera; film editors Mohammed A. Gawad, Vartan Avakian and Barbara Bossuet; sound design by Victor Bresse; and costume designer, Zeina Kiwan. The film was produced by the Zero Production Company in collaboration with Sunnyland Films, Mengamuk Films, arte and Mengamuk Films.
Other members of the cast include Laila Samy, Hanan Yousef, Maryam Saleh and Aly Sobhy, along with Hayder Helo and Basim Hajar from Iraq and Bassem Fayad from Lebanon.
About Tamer El Said:
Tamer El Said is an Egyptian independent film director, screenwriter and film producer, studied journalism and film production at the Higher Institute for Cinema in Cairo. he was the assistant director for several major feature films by Egyptian directors. He has written, directed and produced numerous short films and documentaries which have won regional and international awards. Prime among them are the short narrative film On a Monday (2005) and the hour-long documentary Take me (2004). He co-wrote the feature film Eye of the Sun (2008) with Ibrahim el-Batout and played the voice of the narrator in this film. He also appeared as one of the characters in the film Heliopolis (2009) by Ahmed Abdalla.
Media coverage:
al-akhbar.com
variety.com
