Book Launch: Qanawi's Last Cry
Launch event for the book "Qanawi's Last Cry, I'll Show You" and an open conversation with Bassil Ramsis.
About the event
The book "Qanawi's Last Cry, I'll Show You": The Evolution of Subjective Vision and Narrative Modes in Youssef Chahine's Cinema, 1950–2007, by writer and director Bassil Ramsis, is published by Kotob Khan in Cairo to mark the centenary of filmmaker Youssef Chahine.
About the book:
Across seventeen chapters, Bassil Ramsis reads the history of Egyptian cinema at the heart of its cultural and social context. The book traces the evolution of Chahine's cinematic language and the growth of his subjective vision through the political and historical periods he lived through, and his shifting stance toward them, from accommodation to critique, and eventually to fierce self-critique. Ramsis also examines the recurring themes in Chahine's films and the changing modes of production behind his work. The book centers on what the author calls "cinema of self-reference," with Chahine a founding figure within Arab cinema, long defined by thrilling, emotional, comedic storytelling forms Chahine engaged with in his own way, seeking the social within commercial themes the market sometimes demanded of him.
