{"id":178,"date":"2025-06-03T03:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/s4q7jq2n.top\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/in-cairo-the-little-indie-cinema-that-could\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T03:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:45:14","slug":"in-cairo-the-little-indie-cinema-that-could","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/in-cairo-the-little-indie-cinema-that-could\/","title":{"rendered":"In Cairo, the little indie cinema that could"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zawya, meaning “perspective” in Arabic, has weathered the storm of Egypt’s economic upheavals, championing a more artistic approach from the historical heart of the country’s golden age of cinema.<\/p>\n

Zawya was born in the post-revolutionary artistic fervour of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n

“There was this energy where people wanted to produce and create, not just in cinema, but in all the arts, you could feel it,” said Zawya founder Youssef Shazli.<\/p>\n

In the time since, it has escaped a wave of closures — some forced — of art centres across the capital.<\/p>\n

Egypt had long been known as the Hollywood of the Arab world, but in the decades since its mid-century heyday, the domestic industry has largely been restricted to crowd-pleasing blockbusters.<\/p>\n

“It’s often said that we’re lucky to have a large film industry, with infrastructure already in place,” said filmmaker Maged Nader.<\/p>\n

“But the truth is this industry operates solely on a commercial logic,” leaving little room for independent filmmakers, he added.<\/p>\n

Yet Zawya has survived in its niche, in part due to the relative financial stability afforded to it by its parent company Misr International Films.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1972 by Egyptian cinematic giant Youssef Chahine — Shazli’s great uncle — the company continues to produce and distribute films.<\/p>\n

Young talent<\/p>\n

For Shazli, Zawya is “a cinema for films that don’t fit into traditional theatres”.<\/p>\n

But for young cinephiles like 24-year-old actress Lujain, “it feels like home,” she told AFP as she joined a winding queue into the larger of Zawya’s two theatres. <\/p>\n

Since 2014, Zawya’s year-round programming — including both local and international short films, documentaries and feature films — has secured the loyalty of a small but passionate scene.<\/p>\n

Its annual short film festival, held every spring, has become a vital space for up-and-coming directors trying to break through a system that leaves little room for experimentation.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t even consider myself a filmmaker until Zawya screened my short,” said Michael Samuel, 24, who works in advertising but says the cinema rekindled his artistic ambition.<\/p>\n

For many, that validation keeps them going.<\/p>\n

“Zawya has encouraged more people to produce these films because they finally have somewhere to be seen,” said the cinema’s manager, Mohamed Said.<\/p>\n

When Mostafa Gerbeii, a self-taught filmmaker, was looking for a set for his first film shoot, he also turned to the cinema.<\/p>\n

Without a studio or a budget, Zawya “just lent us their hall for free for a whole day”, he said, saving the young director 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around $2,000) to rent a location.<\/p>\n

The heir<\/p>\n

The light of its marquee spilling onto downtown Cairo’s Emad al-Din Street, Zawya is the 21st-century heir to a long artistic tradition that still lingers, though often hidden away in corners of the district’s broad avenues.<\/p>\n

“It’s a unique neighbourhood with an equally unique flavour of artistic and intellectual life,” said Chihab El Khachab, a professor at the University of Oxford and author of the book “Making Film in Egypt”.<\/p>\n

Starting in the late 19th century, the area was home to the city’s biggest theatres and cabarets, launching the careers of the Arab world’s most celebrated singers and actors.<\/p>\n

Today, its arteries flowing out of Tahrir square — the heart of the 2011 uprising — the neighbourhood is home to new-age coworking spaces and galleries, side by side with century-old theatres and bars.<\/p>\n

Yet even as it withstands the hegemony of mall multiplexes, Zawya cannot escape Egypt’s pervasive censorship laws. Like every cinema in Egypt, each film must pass through a state censors before screening. <\/p>\n

“Over time, you learn to predict what will slide and what won’t,” Shazli said.<\/p>\n

But even the censors’ scissors have failed to cut off the stream of ambition among burgeoning filmmakers.<\/p>\n

“Around Zawya, there’s a lot of talent — in every corner,” Shazli said.<\/p>\n

“But what I wonder is: are there as many opportunities as there is talent? That’s the real issue we need to address.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cairo (AFP) \u2013 <\/span> In the heart of Cairo, a small cinema has for over a decade offered a unique space for independent film in a country whose industry is largely dominated by commercial considerations. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Issued on: 03\/06\/2025 – 05:45<\/span>Modified: 03\/06\/2025 – 05:50<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span> 3 min Reading time<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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