Namir Abdel Masih: "Life after arrows".. From the journey of loss to the contemplation of existence

After a busy journey that began with its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and passed through the El Gouna Film Festival, where it won three major awards: the El Gouna Silver Star for Best Long Documentary Film, the El Gouna Star for Best Arab Documentary Film, and the “Cine Gouna” Award – Emerge» For Best Documentary Feature Film, “Life After Siham” by director “Namir Abdel Masih” continues its award. His successful career led him to participate with his film in the next session of the Cairo International Film Festival within the special screenings section.

 

The film begins from the moment of the loss of the mother “Siham” Which turns into a focus for restoring family memory and contemplating the meaning of loss and life after departure. “Namir” was able to… In a poetic visual style, he turns sadness into a journey of contemplation on the meaning of existence, memory, and nostalgia.

In this interview, the director talks about the new version in which the film will be shown in Cairo, and about his human and artistic experience in this work. Exceptional.

 

 

Three El Gouna awards at the same time… How did you receive this coronation?

 

A very beautiful feeling, but what was most important to me was the audience’s reaction, so what I was thinking about before showing the film was to know whether the meaning of the film would reach the audience or not, and the answer came to me clearly and quickly in the reaction of the people as soon as the screening ended, including crying, hugs, and sincere feelings, so this scene was My first award.

 

 

What new will the Cairo Film Festival version offer?

 

The version that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival was a preliminary version, to which modifications were made to be shown at the El Gouna Film Festival. It will be shown at the Cairo Film Festival. It will be the first fully Arabic version of the film. The film is basically French-Egyptian, and I do the voice-over in French. So I decided to re-record the audio in Arabic, and I will do that tomorrow in Cairo, because I want the film to reach more of the Arab audience, and this version will be its first showing in the language. Arabic.

 

 

Why didn’t you just do the written translation instead of changing the French language, especially since it is justified in the film?

 

It is true that the French language has justification within the film, because the family immigrated She lived in France, and in the film I start the conversation in French and end it in Arabic, and this is linked to the letter my mother wrote to me in French and said in it: “I am writing to you in this language that is not my language, and I was hoping that you would understand my language.” And when I finish the film in Arabic, it is like my response to her, as if I am saying to her, “I understand your language,” and I may lose this meaning when I completely translate my words into Arabic, but what I will gain is more important: communication with the Arab audience. I want every viewer to feel that the film belongs to him, and to create direct communication with the audience 

 

Does this indicate Do you want to return to Egypt to make films that address the local viewer?

 

I always try to build bridges between Arab and European cultures, and therefore I try to present films that are understood in Europe and reach the Arab audience at the same time. For example, my previous film (The Virgin, the Copts, and Me) was very Egyptian, even if it did not It was shown in Egypt and did not obtain a permit from the censorship, and I was surprised that a large number of Egyptians had watched it, especially from   The simple people who told me: This is a film that talks about us.

So what concerns me is to present something that concerns humanity, because humanity is the true link between cultures.

 

And how did this exception happen, that a film was shown in El Gouna and then shown in Cairo? Connection» 

affiliated with the Cairo Festival, and received support from the Marrakesh Festival, and then came the support of El Gouna. With the support of the three festivals for the film and their desire to screen it, there was confusion. Marrakesh understood that the film was Egyptian and that the first Arab screening would be in Egypt. I had to choose between Cairo and El Gouna, so I decided to screen in El Gouna and prepare a different screening version for Cairo. Thank God, there was a very great spirit of understanding and cooperation from all parties. Festivals.

 

 

You seem influenced by Youssef Chahine, as the film contains scenes from his films through which you were able to tell your story very professionally. Does this mean that you were also influenced by him in the way of narration? And the vision?

 

Youssef Chahine is one of the most important Arab filmmakers who combined personal concerns and national issues in an innovative visual language. He is a director who had the courage of the story and the boldness of the image, and he made cinema his means of understanding the self and society. He was interested in Arab history, and made films about Saladin and the setback of 1967, but at the same time He was telling himself through the issues of his society, and what I also like about him is that he built bridges of communication with France and the West, and presented the West from an Arab point of view, and all of these are things I like about his experience.

 

 

 

The film is full of material. Family archive… How did you build up all this archive?

Since my childhood, I used to love the camera very much. I used to take videos when I was young, and I was happy with the idea of ​​hiding behind the camera and discovering the world through it, even though my family hated photography, especially since I used to photograph them at all times without prior preparations, but their objection made me laugh and made me continue photographing, and because I deeply appreciated the value of Videos. Before the advent of the Internet and video calls, I used to carry video messages to my mother and father in France to my grandmother in Upper Egypt when I was visiting her. All of those snapshots became a treasure and I relied on them in my film. In addition, my family kept pictures and recordings of me when I was a child. I found this archive and used it. Also.

 

 

What are your next steps? Will you abandon subjectivity in your upcoming works?

 

I do not know yet, as I am currently busy with the film (Life After Siham) and I am making the largest number of audiences watch it. As for subjectivity, I am good at expressing myself, but what I write or narrate in my films reaches people and makes them feel that I am telling their story.