Buck on Film

Buck in the Stacks #9:

A Film Buff in Egypt
An Interview with Sameh Ali

by Sarah Yasin

Sameh is an interpreter and teacher of EFL (English as a Foreign Language), and a multi-talented Egyptian who lives in a small, quiet city where the River Nile runs through. He has worked as a school teacher, EFL instructor, tour guide, secretary, personal assistant, and call center representative in Egypt, Kuwait, and U.A.E. He feels himself to be like a bird, soaring all the time in the overseas skies. He is a lyricist, poet, and a very sensitive, romantic human being.

What is the essence of Egyptian film?
The Egyptian film has become void of any good message to convey to the audience; it is all about adapting and bringing American movies to Egypt, with just slight modifications, like Egyptianizing (making Egyptian) character names, etc. Briefly, there is no creativity or innovation in the plots, main ideas, or any other aspect of the movies shot in Egypt throughout the past ten years.

It is very noteworthy that Egyptian filmmakers now interject profane and indecent language and somehow irrelevant sexually-oriented scenes into their movies. It is similar to the fact that we, as Arab people, have the most pornographic oriented video clips for Arab hits on the surface of planet Earth. A good-looking young lady can easily be a singer, regardless of any other trivial considerations, like having a good, melodious voice. All that matters to the media is shooting a video clip of ladies wearing little clothing, as if they are too poor to buy themselves complete outfits.

Can you speak a little on the work of the award-winning Egy-Lebanese director, Youssef Chahine, who died July 27, 2008?

I'm sorry to say that I do not like the style of Youssif Chahine. All the Egyptian people were always saying that his movies are not intelligible and nobody can ever get the main point behind them; indeed, it is the majority of his movies that are like that, but some of them were fairly good.

When you are choosing a film to see in your town in Egypt, what is the ratio of Egyptian, Indian, and American films to choose from in the theater?

We do not have distributors for the new Hindi movies. According to the Egyptian people's mood, there will be no revenue or income for such movies as the idol and the lone star of the Egyptian people, Amitabh Bachchan, has grown older, so he does not perform action movies with incredible jumps anymore.

The most prevalent type is silly Egyptian and American-adapted movies. There are specific cinemas showing American movies; not all of our cinemas offer such films.

Being a Bollywood maniac, like most 1980s-born Egyptian people, I would prefer to watch an Indian movie -- even if it is not subtitled in Arabic, English or French, as I can get many words in Hindi due to having lived in some of the G.C.C. (Gulf Cooperation Council) states with many Indians, Filipinos, and many other nationalities. If your question meant to check my criteria for choosing a film to watch, well:

* Egyptian: all our Egyptian movies have become nothing more than silly and ridiculous comic ones, sexually oriented, with disappointedly imitated action, or vice-spreading ones. All these types of film contain at least one female actor who behaves in a very vulgar way.

*Indian: these are the professionals in making multi-plot movies; moreover, they engage multiple feelings and emotions that emerge within the same movie, i.e., you may cry, guffaw, dance, sing, and fall in love with the girl in the seat next to you.

*American: these movies are professionally prepared and performed. Nevertheless, I can criticize them in one way or another, like I do with Egyptian and Indian ones. For me, a good American movie is one that can combine and collect all plots (action, romance, wit, fun, even sex) and themes in one entity, e.g., Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts' masterpiece, "Conspiracy Theory."

And what about the video rental store? What kind of mix is available there?
Currently in Egypt, there are no video rental stores, as the satellite systems have become the primary distribution method to the Egyptian people. However, there are video rental stores in Kuwait, U.A.E., and other G.C.C. countries, where you can find video tapes and DVDs to purchase or rent as well. At those video rental stores there is a good variety of American, Arab, and Indian movies. Indian ones are the majority of the films offered, as Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, etc., make up the demographic of the Arabian Gulf countries.

How do you define Bollywood?
Terrific, fabulous, and incredible. They are always innovative, and Indian movies are almost the only type of movie, as far as I know, that do not add sexually explicit scenes to the scenario or the logical sequence of the film itself among all other kinds of movies all over the world.

My favorite qualities of film are those that contain action, romance, and joyful, uplifting scenes with a moral message. This is not impossible to happen, as it is already found in the Hindi movies, from where I have learned, via perception, how to dance like them.