جدل حول جرائة في الحجمة الجونة

In this context, RT contacted a number of technical critics in Egypt to get their opinion on the nature of the eighth session, and the role of the festival in supporting Egyptian and Arabic cinema, and the impact of the media image and social media on its artistic mission.

Khaled Mahmoud: “الجمهور ركّز على فيلميا.. والفسطين جز من الدعاية لا كعفر”

Technical critic Khalid Mahmoud confirmed that the current session saw a very good selection of films, pointing out that the Al-Junnah Festival, as it is not a nationally accredited festival, plays an important role as a platform for showing films that have won awards at major festivals such as Cannes or Venice, which compensates the Egyptian public who cannot travel to see them.

He pointed out that the focus of this year was clearly on films, whether before critics or film students or the general public, and it is not a positive development.

Mahmoud said: “This year’s festival was more dignified compared to previous years in terms of clothing. The issue of dresses has nothing to do with the nature of the artistic festival, but is part of the artists’ personal publicity, just like it happens at major international festivals. The media culture has changed over the years to focus on appearance, but this year the focus was less on dresses, which is a good thing.”

It also touched on the controversy surrounding Taha Dsoqi’s speech at the opening ceremony, believing it to be “a natural thing”, explaining: “Taha Dsoqi knows that his appearance will be in the spotlight, and he handled the situation intelligently, and he did not get angry at the noise it caused, because he knows that the intrusion of the media world is called for at such moments”.

Mahmoud called on the organizers of the festival to focus in the next rounds on supporting independent film projects, saying: “We need Egyptian films that are far from the mainstream, and we need to give them a real chance. The attention to the cinema should be greater than the attention to the show, especially since the neighborhood is a tourist city by nature, which makes the atmosphere automatically lean towards the celebration side.”

He also criticized the appearance of confusion in the distribution of awards, pointing out that the award for the best actor received by the Egyptian artist Ahmed Malik was a source of controversy, explaining: “Although Malik’s performance was good, the Colombian actor in the film itself was more deserving. The presence of Egyptian stars in the jury may push them – unintentionally – to give the award to their country, even if it was not the best”.

Majdah Khairallah: “Social media ignored the films and focused on the red carpet”

For its part, the critics pointed out that the festival achieved clear positives, most notably the diversity of films inside and outside the competition, and the screening of recently produced Egyptian and Arabic films, which is rare in local festivals that often suffer from the scarcity of new works.

وأشادت بـالتكريمات والندوات والنشرة اليومية التي تحلّل الأفلام من خلال آراء نقاد متعددين، معتبرة ذلك “قيمة مضافة حقيقية”.

But she drew attention to the fact that the social media did not talk about these technical aspects, but focused almost exclusively on the looks of the artists on the Red Carpet, saying: “This focus has nothing to do with the festival itself. We cannot tell the artists what to wear, this is a matter of personal taste, not the responsibility of the organizers.”

وفيما يخص الجدل حول طاه دسوقي, وصفه خير الله به “مفتعلة”, explained: “Taha spoke about تحوّل هيتها بعد الشهرة, ولم قعل شيعً صاحيًً. The problem is in the way he addressed some of the topic, and not in his speech.”

واتفق الناقدان على أن حجمة الجونة has great artistic potential, but it suffers from the influence of the media image and social media on its artistic mission.

And he asked both of them for more support for the new cinema, and to review the selection process of the awards to ensure safety, with the emphasis that attention to appearance is part of the culture of the international festival, but it should not be focused on the essence of the event: the cinema.

Source: RT