Notizie

Female-led shows, crime dramas and politically charged stories are still making their mark.

“Anne of Green Gables” author Lucy Maud Montgomery will finally get the starry treatment worthy of her iconic characters in “Lucy. Maud.” Produced by Girls Productions, it’s created by Susan Coyne and presented at Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series.

“It’s a compelling drama about a powerful woman whose life experience remains relatable to this day,” promises producer Edwina Follows.

Another female protagonist, a young chef dealing with psychosis, will look for “Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown” in a Sophie White-created show, based on her own novel. Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures produces.

“What sets ‘Recipes’ apart is the stark, raw authenticity of the piece. It ties Sophie’s true story of managing – rather than ever fully healing from – a mental health collapse, through the glory and salvation of food. Sophie wants to bring the audience through the full descent into psychosis,...

Juxtaposing the story of the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba with a musical tour of jazzman Louis Armstrong and with the expansion of the United Nations after the independence of many African countries in the 1960s might be tall order. Trickier still would be telling this complex story, full of many characters and plot swerves, in a nonlinear manner while filling the screen with written clues providing context like a bibliography of an academic thesis. Writer and director Johan Grimonprez sets himself a difficult task with “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” yet accomplishes it with astonishing success. The film plays like both a dense historical text and a lively jazz concert while proving itself to be an invigorating piece of documentary filmmaking.

Touching on far more than the decolonization of Africa, Grimonprez’s ambitious essay film encompasses the political and historical upheavals the world over — including the alleged involvement...

The first time Cecil B. DeMille parted the waters of the Red Sea, to film the 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, he did it at Seal Beach, CA, just 30 miles down the Pacific coast from Santa Monica. Three decades later, when Paramount Pictures decided to remake the Old Testament tale in Technicolor and VistaVision, the same director returned to do it again, only this time on location on the Sinai Peninsula with thousands of extras provided by the Egyptian army — no matter that the country’s military was rather busy with urgent geopolitical matters at the time. Both versions were massive hits, with the remake serving as the capper to DeMille’s illustrious career.

Related Story Take Two: Hammond And McCarthy Talk The Highs And Lows Of A Sundance That Was A Welcome Return To Normal Related Story Sphinx Head From Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments' Unearthed Related Story 'A.

“The Bourne Identity” helmer Doug Liman is attached to direct the adaptation of a chapter from acclaimed nonfiction book “Rise And Kill First.”

It details how Israel’s Mossad reached out in desperation to former Nazi Waffen SS lieutenant colonel Otto Skorzeny, a favourite of Hitler’s -branded by British intelligence services as “the most dangerous man in Europe,” to thwart an existential threat to Israel’s existence.

The stranger-than-fiction true story is set up at New York’s Story Syndicate, headed by Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus, and at Israel’s Abot Hameiri, producer of “Shtisel,” “The Attaché” and “Power Couple.” A Fremantle company, its co-founder, Guy Hameiri, assembled the world-class direction-production team.

A Cannes Festival alum with 2010’s Palme d’Or contender “Fair Game,” Liman will also oversee development of the limited series. David Bartis also produces through Hypnotic.

The story unspools against...

Captivated by the seemingly many personas of late actor Omar Sharif, Egyptian filmmaker Mark Lotfy and Swedish director Axel Petersén delved into the legendary star’s eventful career, tracing how the politics of 1950s Egypt formed the international star’s complex character.

Their new documentary, “The Life and Times of Omar Sharif,” shows in particular how the policies of President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the political climate of the time led him to change his name and convert to Islam, and later to become a cosmopolitan individual who was equally at home in Cairo, Paris or Los Angeles.

Sharif’s life and career are described as a “dramatic balancing act, set on an East-West axis, illustrated by the hundreds of characters he played, on and off screen, in the changing political landscapes of Hollywood and the Middle East.”

Produced by Sigrid Helleday’s Stockholm-based Fedra in co-production with Lotfy’s...

Hatem Ali, the influential Syrian multi-hyphenate whose hit historical TV dramas provided collective insight across the Arab world on the roots and complexities of the region’s turbulence, died on Tuesday at 58.

The cause of death, which took place in a Cairo hotel, was a heart attack, according to multiple Middle East news reports.

Born in 1962 in Syria’s Golan Heights, the strategic region occupied by Israel in 1967, Ali started out writing short stories and plays in which he also performed. In 1986 he graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus with an acting degree.

After starting out in showbiz as an actor, Ali segued into directing during the 1990s helming several made-for-tv feature films, including “The Long Night,” a potent drama about the lives of three dissidents released from a Syrian prison after 20 years of incarceration that in 2009 won the top prize at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival.

Stewart Copeland gets asked a lot of questions, but they’re rarely about his youth in the Middle East. “When you’re a pop star, you often find yourself with a microphone pointed at you and you’re asked to explain yourself,” the former Police drummer says. “Like, ‘Who are you? What makes you tick?’ Which is the interesting stuff. But the easy one should be, ‘So where ya from?'”

When he’s asked the easy one, Copeland’s answer often results in confusion. “[It] leads to, ‘Wait, what?'” he says.

Taghi Amirani’s gripping film about the move against Iran’s prime minister highlights an inglorious chapter of history

This powerful and authoritative documentary by the Iranian film-maker Taghi Amirani is as gripping as any thriller. Coup 53 is about a vitally important historical event and horribly inglorious chapter in the postwar UK and US: the story of how, in 1953, Britain and the US teamed up to unseat the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh – who had nationalised British oil interests – and replace him with the skittish, preening and very biddable Shah of Iran. This cataclysmic meddling was the Book of Genesis in the bible of dirty tricks.

The coup emboldened the British to try the same in Egypt against Gamal Abdel Nasser over the Suez canal, and their humiliation there taught them that this sort of thing could not be attempted without a green light from the real imperial power: the US.

Mother’s Day in the U.S. only dates back to the early 20th century, and can be traced to the efforts of one woman, Anna Jarvis. Most countries followed suit internationally, patterning their own holidays after the U.S.’s, but plenty of other cultures have their own version of the concept.

Ethiopia’s mother-celebrating holiday, Antrosht, isn’t tied to a specific date. Rather, they wait for the region’s rainy season to end, then spend three days celebrating with their families. However, unlike a lot of Western Mother’s Days, mothers don’t get Antrosht off: they...

Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari is set to topline Netflix's real-life Egyptian spy drama The Angel.

Based on the New York Times best-selling book The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel, the feature will tell the true story of Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and special adviser to Nasser's successor Anwar Sadat, who spied on behalf of Israel, gaining invaluable intelligence that helped to politically shape the Middle East in the 20th century. 

Ariel Vormen will direct from a screenplay by Children of Men writer David Arata. Simon Istolainen and Antoine Stioui will produce the feature, which will begin production in early...

Icarus Films is distributing in the U.S. and Canada, Michal Goldman’s new documentary, “Nasser’s Republic, The Making of Modern Egypt,” the first film for a Western audience about Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the world’s most transformative leaders. In 1952, a… Continue Reading →...

Alastair Stewart Nov 17, 2016

Netflix's pricy royal family drama The Crown has stand-out performances from John Lithgow and Matt Smith, but lacks story...

Warning: contains spoilers.

The great cliche about the British is that we’re a stoic lot; emotionally reserved and only ever prone to bouts of ‘hayfever’ when Bambi’s mum dies.

Netflix’s £100m production of The Crown tries to buck this trope with a ten-part series dramatising the personal and political events surrounding the first decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign from 1952.

One part Downton Abbey, one part House Of Cards (the original of course), The Crown never quite decides if it wants to commit itself to a political drama or total supposition about the inner workings of the Court of St James's.

Written by Peter Morgan, the identity struggle at the heart of the series is not hard to explain. Morgan made his name as...

Sneak Peek footage, images and synopsis from the upcoming 'royals' TV series "The Crown", created by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures, starring Claire Foy as young 'Queen Elizabeth II' debuting November 4, 2016 on Netflix:

"...'The Crown' will trace the life of 'Queen Elizabeth II' from her wedding in 1947 to the present day, spanning 60 episodes over 6 seasons..."

Cast also includes Matt Smith ("Dr. Who") as 'Prince Philip', Jared Harris as 'King George VI', Vanessa Kirby as 'Princess Margaret' and John Lithgow as 'Winston Churchill'.

Also starring are Greg Wise as 'Lord Louis Mountbatten', Victoria Hamilton as 'Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother', Stephen Dillane as 'Graham Sutherland', Andy Sanderson as 'Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester', Michael Culkin as 'Rab Butler', Nicholas Rowe as 'Jock Colville', Rita McDonald Damper as...

Icarus Films has announced the acquisition of distribution rights for the U.S. and Canada to Michal Goldman’s new documentary, “Nasser’s Republic, The Making of Modern Egypt,” the first film for a Western audience about Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the world’s… Continue Reading →...

This Time

Written by Sevan K. Greene

Directed by Kareem Fahmy

Presented by Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Sheen Center, NYC

May 7-21, 2016

This Time is the continent- and decade-spanning yet intimate new play by Sevan K. Greene, presented in its world premiere by Rising Circle Theater Collective, a group that focuses on original work by artists of color. Greene based his play on Not So Long Ago, the memoir of Amal Meguid, director Kareem Fahmy’s grandmother, to whose memory This Time is dedicated. This Time actually follows two threads of time, one in 1990s Toronto, the play’s present, and one that begins in 1960s Cairo and moves towards that present. In the latter thread, a young Amal (Rendah Heywood) meets Nick (Seth Moore), a Canadian on business in Cairo, at a party. Both are trilingual; Amal is blunt, honest, and married; Nick, avowedly romantic, pushy, and sleeping with his secretary.

The Toronto International Film Festival’s prominence on the festival circuit has only grown over the years, with films from numerous different fields having gone on to critical and commercial acclaim. Among the festival’s different categories are Tiff Docs and Vanguard. Tiff Docs allows documentaries to get their own spotlight at the festival, giving acclaimed documentarians such as Michael Moore and Frederick Wiseman a platform for their films. The Vanguard section, on the other hand, showcases films that aren’t easily categorisable into a specific genre. With the Canadian Films lineup announcement having revealed the first set of films playing in each group, Tiff today revealed more of the lineup in each section. The list of newly announced films, with their official synopses, is as follows.

Tiff Docs

Amazing Grace, directed by Sydney Pollack, making its International Premiere

Sydney Pollack’s film of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Amazing Grace.’ Filmed...

Exclusive: Cairo-based New Century Production is putting together an ambitious six-picture slate featuring some of Egypt’s leading veteran and independent filmmakers, including the next project from Rags And Tatters director Ahmad Abdalla.

Entitled Décor, the project is scripted by renowned Egyptian screenwriter Mohamed Diab, who previously wrote and directed award-winning sexual harassment drama 678. Khaled Abol Naga (Microphone, Villa 69) and Egyptian actress Horreya Farghaly will head the cast.

Scheduled to start shooting in the next few weeks, Décor marks the first big-budget production from Abdalla who has won acclaim for independent productions such as Heliopolis, Microphone and current Egyptian box office hit Rags And Tatters.

Abdalla plans to shoot Decor in black-and-white – the first time the format has been used in Egyptian cinema since Mohamed Fadel’s Nasser 56, about the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1996.

New Century will also produce Abnormal Decisions – written and to be directed by veteran Egyptian filmmaker Daoud Abdel Sayed, whose...

A scene from Tawfik Saleh's The Dupes. Egyptian filmmaker Tawfik Saleh died on Sunday, August 18, 2013, aged 87.

Saleh was a pioneer in the school of Arab neo colonial film realism, with many of his films considered classics. He directed seven features between 1955 and 1980.

Saleh co-wrote the screenplay of his first feature, Fool's Alley, with Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Al Ahram notes this week that it "remains one of the most important Egyptian movies in the Fifties."

Despite receiving critical acclaim during the Sixties, Saleh was besieged by president Gamal Abdel Nasser's censors. His 1967 film, The Rebels, was banned outright in Egypt. He left his country in 1970, and spent a decade living in Iraq and Syria.

In 1972, Saleh directed The Dupes. This seminal film was based on the short novel by Palestinian writer and poet Ghassan Kanafani, assassinated by the Mossad in Beirut.

The Dupes is a landmark of.

Film-makers claim security agencies have censored their documentary on Egypt's thriving pre-1950s Jewish community

Security agencies have banned an Egyptian film about the Arab nation's once-thriving Jewish community just a day before it was due to open in cinemas, according to the documentary's producer.

The Jews of Egypt examines the lives of the country's estimated 65,000 Jews prior to their departure in the late 1950s due to Egypt's conflict with Israel. Producer Haytham el-Khamissy said no reason had been given for the ban, which recalls the worst excesses of the famously censorial regime of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

"There is no excuse for this except delay and obstruction," said El-Khamissy in a post on the film's Facebook page. "I announce the delay of the screening of Jews of Egypt until a solution is found for this inexplicable problem, inherited from long years in the parlours of the Egyptian state securities...