10 December 2011

Hypatia and Alexandria


Written by: - Mamdough Shalaby.
Bettany Hughes


British archeologist Bettany Hughes takes us to her own world, where the documentary (Hypatia and Alexandria) begins while the camera shows her getting up the steps of Ashmolean Museum  in Oxford, she speaks to us as in the stage prologue, where she says, I learned in this museum 25 years ago, It is the oldest museum in the world.

And she continues talking in this one shot scene to determine the beginning of the modern history, where she was told when she was a student that the history of the modern world begins between 380 to 390 AD, and then determines the subject of her film, which will focus on the latest phases of the ancient history, in the city of Alexandria.

Alexandria which be dreamed by Alexander the Great, to be built throughout the men who success him in order to achieve his dream of a city gathers scientists, architecture, art, and to contain on the walls of its library the knowledge of the world.

This one shot scene is not one shot as I said, it contains three shots, but the viewer's eye will not notice; because the director cuts from Bettany to her again to approach a little each time, and the director can implement this by slow zoom, but what he did by editing was good.

In the heart of the community of Alexandria, the scientist and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was a witness to an extraordinary time, she witnessed the end of the pagan era and the beginning of modern history.

And the film cuts to the second scene, where the director puts us on the surface of the Citadel of Alexandria, while Bettany Hughes continues speaking to us, while the Sea of Alexandria is shown behind, and a footage from the feature film (Agora) - which dealt with the story of Hypatia- integrate to connect between what we hear in the soundtrack by Bettany and what we see.

Alexandria, where ancient and modern dovetail together in harmony and continuation, the ancient city still exists under the streets of Alexandria and its Sea, this scene ends by the title (Alexandria, the greatest city) is printed on shot shows the famous lighthouse is taken from Agora movie.

The film begins after the two preface scenes, to introduce modern Alexandria in various shots and the voice of Bethany tells us that the city of Alexandria, over 2300 years since founded by Alexander the Great, was the focal point between east and west, and the old city in spite of the modern one is hard to forget.

When the first shots begin on the streets of Alexandria, we listen to the voice of Egyptian drum, that the director (Nick Gilliam Smith) reminds his British viewers what seems to be unmistakable theme for their ears to express the East and Egypt, while we see Bettany is speaking to us during walking in the street, to tell us about this place, where Alexander, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Julius Caesar, are buried beneath its ground  and it's the place to one of the seventh wonders of the world.

Then the movie continues. The division of the film into scenes is not accurate to describe these scenes because every scene tends to be sequence as it contains presentations of footage out of the scene but relevant, therefore it is better not to divide the film into scenes and let it flows in amazing.

The movie stops at the Alexander the Great, where we see his statue from various angles, and the voice of Bettany says that Alexander the Great who was born in Macedonia, fulfilled the unification of Greece and defeated the Persian Empire, to establish the largest empire in history.

Then the film takes us way out to the area of Saqqara in Giza, to see Bettany there continues talking about Alexander, he was ambitious. In the age of 24 years, the world was under his control, but the biggest prize for him was Egypt, Bettany then looks proudly to the pyramid of Saqqara.

Then we see Bettany walking in one of the temples of Luxor.
It is quite justified integration of sites because the director wanted to clarify the luxury of this civilization, which Alexander put his hand on.

Egypt, which irrigated by the Nile to thrive the engineering innovations on its banks, Egypt, which Herodotus, the father of history, wrote that there is no place in the world is like this great country in its achievements and its greatness.

The Alexander conquered Egypt in 322 BC, but how Alexander managed to obtain all of this recognition from the Egyptian people?
This question is answered by Egyptian (Pakistani) archeologist, prof. Salima Ikram, who accompanying Bettany in Saqqara and gets down with her ​​to the tomb of Apis.

Alexander visited the temples of the Egyptians and gave money and gifts, the Egyptians therefore liked him.

In the tomb of Apis we will see the splendor of the internal photographing at an inartificial lighting, and we will see close up shots of Ikram and Bethany, that the film which lasts 52 minutes contains a few shots like these.

From this internal scene, Smith takes us way out to a shot of the sun at full spin, using a filter on the lens of the camera, then a shot of a palm frond, the light of the sun sparkling from, moving to Bettany in the desert of Saqqara next two archaeological columns, to continue commenting on Alexander, who was viewed by the Egyptians - as a result of his proper treatment and appreciation of their culture - not as an invader or a king, but a beloved God.
We will note in this shot, that the director uses the zoom to close gradually to Bettany.

After that the scene changes completely as we see Bettany on a bus's seat, its external window reveals a traditional scene of the green land of Egypt where the camera reveals the landscape during the movement of the bus, while Bettany contemplates, and instead of talking to us, as usual, we listen to her voice commenting from outside the scene.

Here we should point out that the soundtrack in this film consists of three integrated levels, first the direct speech of Bettany to her audience as a friend, and secondly Bettany's voice as a narrator, and thirdly the dialogue when she talks with one of the guests of the film, this diversification levels are vital and indispensable, because the film full of details, and the result will be a disaster if the director used one level.

In her narration, Bettany says that the Alexander's plan to take control of Egypt, started by choosing the place of his new city to be the capital, the director shows the map of Egypt depicting the Nile River and its banks where we see three points represent Memphis, Saqqara and Luxor, and then we see a colored spot in the far north of the map at the city of Alexandria, Alexander wanted his city to be connected to his hometown in Greece by sea, and to be in the heart of his empire.

After that we see the waters of Alexandria, there are fishermen in the angry water, then we see Bettany walks, where the Alexandria Citadel ( Qaitbay ) is seen behind, she holds a book, cites some of lines about the island of Pharos, which she stands at it now, then we see the eastern port and its fishing boats in a wide shot, and a pan shot reviews the place.

And then we see Bettany sitting on the surface of the Citadel and on her feet there is a map of Alexandria, and in her hand a pen, and then she draws a line represents the path which filled by Alexander to link Alexandria to the island of Pharos, and another line in the East, to make the eastern port which was the greatest ports in the history.

And because we are now in Alexandria, the film presents it in  various exquisite shots, its eastern harbor, and its clean streets, with an integrated shots taken from feature Agora movie, while we listen to the narration that Alexander successors  continued to work to achieve his dream of building the city of Alexandria, to be a city of trade, architecture, culture, and this section of the film ends by the appearance of the title (Alexandria, the greatest city) again printed  on a shot of the historic lighthouse taken from the  agora movie.

A new section of the film starts, to summarize what have been already talked about in the previous scenes, it's not a repeat of what have been described, it serves as preparation for a new section of the film, which shows footage of the pyramid of Cheops in sunset and the director uses the dissolve between the face of the statue of Alexander and the city of Alexandria in a wide shot.

Then this new section begins, which deals with more specific details of ancient Alexandria, through the ancient cemetery in the area of com Al Soqqafa, where Bettany conversing with her second ​​guest in the film, Mr Colin Clement from the Alexandria studies center, who accompanied Bettany down to the cemetery.

Inside this tomb we see the features of art and culture of the ancient city of Alexandria, which blend the symbols of Greek and Romanian culture and gods with the culture of the pharaohs, as shown in the cemetery statues and its wall sculptures, we watch a sculpture of an animal's head represents the Pharaonic culture while he wears Greek costumes.

After that we see Bettany in external shot reveals antiquity remains consisting of broken columns lying on the grassland.

I do not know the exact location of these remains, but Alexandria is rich with such remains in several locations, some in the heart of the residential area surrounded by buildings on all sides.
In this shot Bettany continues her amusing talk about Alexandria and the founder, the city of Alexandria is not like those of the ancient cities around the world, because its structure does not belong to the first phase of bronze or classic structure to continue through the ages.

Alexandria is a new city according to the archeological term of the cities; it is created by a well educated man because Alexander when he was thirteen years old he was taught by Aristotle.

Then we listen again to the voice of Egyptian drum, while we see Bettany appears and enters the gate of the Alexandrian Roman Theater, the place called Kom Al Dikka.

This is the official name, but the people of Alexandria called the location of the Roman Theater, ( Mehattet Al Ramll ), it's most common name, but it is important to say that the entrance of the Roman Theater is near ( Mehattet Misr ), known as Martyrs squire.

When Bethany enters the campus of this important archaeological site, she meets the third guest of the film, she is Emanuela Kulicka, from the polish archaeological unit, she provides for Bethany one of the excavating achievements of her country mission, - that lasted many years – which ended by the discovery of a lecture hall.

I have seen myself the beginning of this excavation nearly seventeen year ago, during my day visit to the Roman Theater, where I closed on curiosity to an archeologist was sitting alone on the ground, removing the dust by his bare hand and I asked him to know that he was a Polish.

We see the discovered lecture hall in good condition and very clearly, it takes a form of a rectangle consists of three steps to accommodate a thirtieth students who were studying law and science in these halls. Bethany then asks about the lecturer place, then Emanuela indicates to the steps overlooking the hall, then Bettany sits on this place, and she says a note, that the place is very hot here, to be answered by Emanuela that the lecture hall had been covered with a ceiling, its height of about four or five meters stands on pillars of stone, its remnants still exist.

And a shot of the feature movie Agora of the lecture hall integrates in wiping to see the complete identical with the remnant.

Alexandria as a result of this higher education was rich with ideas and the cutting edge's visions, and shots from the movie Agora continue while we hear the voice of Bettany talks about the level of knowledge at this time, Alexandrian scientists invented instruments, to help them to aware of the scientific facts of the universe, as well as the spherical of the earth had been known and that the earth revolves around the sun.

Here the film references to Hypatia of Alexandria, about a half of the film had passed, but this introduction is indispensable, it establishes the main object, which can not be dealt in isolation from the historical and cultural context in which the exceptional scientist and philosopher such as Hypatia had witnessed.
Hypatia


The scientist Hypatia of Alexandria, whose the international cinema produced a feature film about her with a Spanish capital and international stars, she deserves all this attention, that in addition to being a philosopher, she also mathematician and astronomer, and that her role was not limited to that, but she also invented the astrolabe, a ring metal device, which we know how it works through the fourth guest of the film.

She is Mrs. Hoda El-Mikaty, who engaged in dialogue with Bethany in the Planetarium at the Bibliotheca of Alexandria, and we note also the splendor internal shooting at available lighting and the frequent use of the close up in these interior scenes.

The library sequence didn't come as a surprise because the film director presented it in the beginning of the sequence where we saw Mrs. El-Mikaty accompanies Bettany at the external gate entering the library altogether.

This sequence is ended by a shot is taken to Bettany at the balcony of her room in the hotel which faces the eastern harbor at night, this beautiful shot is used by Bethany to emphasize the importance of scientific achievements and inventions, which we received from the legendary city as the model of the Hypatia`s astrolabe which appears between Bethany's hands.

 And then a several clips enter from the movie Agora explore ancient Alexandria and its buildings, this section of the film ends with the same title (Alexandria, the greatest city) with the same shot of the lighthouse taken from Agora movie.

A new section of the film starts, where we see the modern Alexandria, with its high buildings and streets, while shots from feature Agora integrate with the same streets, and the talking about Hypatia continue.
The film contains an eloquent language is closer to poetry, whether in the description of Hypatia or the Alexander, or his city, which was a start of the era of the science.


The next section of the film is dedicated to the science of medicine, which was one of the achievements of this great city through Gaillard of Alexandria, Bettany talks to us while traveling by Taxi through the streets of Alexandria, but when she begins to offer the details she moves to a laboratory (mostly In Britain) of veterinary anatomy.

We see the fifth Guest of the film, he is the veterinary anatomist, Dr. David Bainbridge, who illustrates by a living part of a horse's brain, he explains how Gaillard promoted the scientific brain's study, and the science of medicine and anatomy were developed by the Egyptians.

Egyptians have had experience in embalming, and the extraction of parts from the person's body before embalmed, Bethany then interferes to say that they were extracting the brain from the nose of the body, but Dr. David says that Herodotus said that, but it is a mistake because the brain can not be extracted from the nose.

We return from this section to Alexandria and its modern streets, with shots of ancient Alexandria taken from Agora, in order to establishing a new section of the film without repeating the same title as the film director used to.

This section deals with the new Library, which represents the Alexandrian ambition to adding a copy of any book in the world to the shelves of the library, just as the old library, which disappeared completely.

The library's shots are great and there are shots from Agora show the papyri placed inside the shelves of the old library, the new library contains technology, science, literature and all knowledge, in all languages, like Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Babylonian and Arabic.

And here I must stop to talk about an issue had taken a great deal of interest in Egypt and perhaps in the world, related to the speech of the former Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni in the Egyptian's Assembly about the Hebrew books that found in the Library of Alexandria in response to a question from one of the Islamists, he said he would burn any Hebrew books, and he returned to apologize to the world when he was a candidate for the UNESCO.

It is a matter of fact that the presence of Hebrew books in the library does not represent an insult to the Egyptian culture, because the Islam's references depends on the Hebrew heritage which known as the Israeli texts, despite of the current situation of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Hebrew heritage is a religious reference for the Christian too; it is also a human heritage.

The library has remains of unique papyri, and here the film begins to focus on papyri and the efforts to restore and preserve them, these efforts is not limited only to the Library of Alexandria, but in various places of the world.

We go with Bettany to the courtyard of the library of the Christ church college in Oxford, and we see Bettany passes the magnificent grassy courtyard to enter into this library, to meet the sixth guest, Dr. Dirk , papyrologist who seen surrounding by the remains of papyri restored.

Dr. Dirk says that the library contains the remains of half a million papyri, including the remains of papyri of Homer's two epic, some philosophical papyri, and a Greek tragedies and comedy.

In fact, I myself, translated Menander's Grouch from the English version of prof. Rosivach, this Greek play has been discovered as a papyrus in Upper Egypt in the early fifties of the twentieth century, and without this papyrus the world may have knew nothing of Menander but the names of his 100 plays.

The laws of ancient Alexandria had not allowed the books to leaving the country, and necessitate inspecting any vessel entering the country to rewriting the papyri if found.

We see Bethany again in the library to tell us that the number of printed books up to about half a million books, we see the giant computer that contains all the electronic information from all Web sites. The ambition of the modern library is similar to the old library to contain all the books, and then this section ends by the printed title (Alexandria, the great city) at a shot of the lighthouse taken from Agora.


A new section of the film begins, it is a very short using shots from agora with the voice of Bethany summarizing the tragedy of Alexandria, which its golden age ended by destructing its library and monuments, this section is very short serves as a prelude to the most important sections of the film, which begins also by emerging of the title (Alexandria, the greatest city) as usual.

This section begins with an oriental sad music played by folk flute, and we listen to the voice of Bethany tells us, that by the year 380 AD, Alexandria had thrived for seven centuries, and it was able to provide ideas and thinkers like Hypatia - where we see a portrait of her -.
Bethany continues saying that Alexandria was the greatest city after Rome, not by its martial forces but by the strength of its scientific and cultural achievements.

Then we see a bright Alexandrian church full of vivid paintings and we see Bettany inside talking about the emergence of the Christian religion and the increasing of the follows of this religion, which existed in the time of Hypatia.

Christianity emerged in Alexandria since the first century AD, the city is taken to be a base to spreading Christianity in Africa, and there was no fear of the prosperity of Christianity in the ancient city, the early Christian fathers appreciated the achievements of the Greek and Romanian civilization, such as the works of Aristotle and Pluto.

It was the era of tolerance and coexistence between the followers of the pagan and the Christian religion, but the conflict started between paganism and Christianity as something inevitable, when the Christian began to claim to be - not only a faithful of a spiritual doctrine of oneness of God - but also want to have the power.

Hypatia was a pagan but numbers of her pupils were Christians, and the conflict began with the bishop Cyril, this conflict led to a crisis, and Hypatia became a victim.

Then we see the historian and archaeologist Justin Pollard, he is the seventh guest of the film, He worked as a consultant in the feature Agora, we see a panel of Caesareum Temple at the background of the shot, and he tells us that Christians looked to Hypatia as a witch.

We hear the voice of Bettany says that one of the Hypatia`s contemporaries wrote that she was accused because of her invention of the astrolabe.
We see Bethany in a street in Alexandria, close to ( Sayed Darwish Theatre ), and we read a title tells us that the location of the Caesareum temple was in this place.

In these exceptional circumstances, Alexandria was destroyed and Hypatia was killed, and her death was a death of a witch, and there are no remains from the Alexandrian library, but only 1% of its papyri.

Then we see Bethany in London near Victoria Embankment, we see an Egyptian obelisk behind her, the one that it called Cleopatra's needle, it's one of the remains of the city of Alexandria, and we see the same needle in a shot taken from Agora, this needle was transferred from Egypt in 1878.
Cleopatra`s needle


Then we see Bettany continues to walk and stop next to another Egyptian statue stands in this important region in London, Bettany ends her film on the fact that ancient Alexandria vanished, but it is worthy to be remembered and celebrated for its achievements.

What a wonderful film, which gathers historical informations, and scenes taken from reality dovetailed with scenes from the film Agora, and the finest performance of Bettany Hughes.

The 52 minutes of the film pass in amusement, because of the perfection, yet we can not miss any detail, it's a sample of filming deserves to be watched, it's also a model of the contemporary documentary films that has been established in Britain as a trade mark.

We must consider more about the quality of the documentary films in Egypt and the Arab world; They are like the books to spreading the culture in the era of multimedia.

I found this extraordinary film coincidently via the Internet, but you may watch it in the following link :-


Team film.
Presentation :- Bettany Hughes
Extraneous scenes - from the movie Agora.
Written by: - Justin Pollard (who participated in the production of the movie)
Photo: - Mike Craven-todd
Sound: - Mohamed Batout and Martin Wilson
Music: - Audio Network
Graphics: - Ginger Huw
Online editor: - Ben Cull
Dubbing mixer: - Malcolm Beattie
Director of production: - Shahana Meer
Location fixor: - Mohamed Hawash
Assistant Producer - Jack Maclnnes
Production manager: - Zoe Turner
Offline editor Studio: - Oliver Baker
Executive producers for lion television: - Bill Locke, and Richard Bradley
Directed and Produced by: - Nick Gillam Smith
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I posted This article first in Arabic at the following two links :-

All good wishes.
Mamdough Shalaby

27 October 2011

The bus by Kareem Ibrahim.

Written by ;- Mamdough Shalaby.

From the first moment while we explore a short feature film entitled the bus, we realize that we are about a great film of a film veteran.
The film begins with a close shot to an o'clock and we see a hand emerges to stop it, a few shots follow, each one lasts a second or two, summarize our waking up habits, which we experience throughout our lives, as entering of the bathroom and the tap's water and a cup of tea or coffee then shutting the door behind us, all these daily rituals we know and memorize all by heart, and shared by all people, whether in Germany or Italy or Japan or Egypt or anywhere else.

The director Kareem Ibrahim (or kareem kandil) reduced the time in these rituals of waking up by a few seconds and he has confidence that the lengthening of these rituals would get his audiences tired.

From the first moment we are with a filmmaker aware of his time and the traditions of watching and he understands well what is the weak time - as a film term - and the strong time, that is what we will explore via this director.

The director chooses the moment of shutting the door to present the titles of the film, which we read word of bus in German and in Arabic underneath, while we listen to the music of the film, which be played by a guitar, and the same music will be repeated throughout the film in a carefully chosen moments by Kareem.

Then we see the camera receives the heroine of the film through the glass of the entrance of the house, we see her approaching and then she opens the door that we see  her face in a close up, and we amazed also because of her good acting, which summarizes in one gesture a compensation of boredom and despair, such feelings can not be represented in such simple and neat approach except by a professional actress, then we listen to her voice from outside the shot.

The film is presented in the narration way through the heroine of the film, that her narration is integrating with the eloquent dialogue in this amazing film, as we listen to her voice tells us (it's the seventh) and the director takes us on a wide shot to see the heroine of the film passes the road in front of her house, to appear in the next wide shot where someone's feet stands at the forefront of the shot at a bus stop, during the continuation of the narration of the heroine to tell us  (I won't bear such cold and dark morning any more).

The camera continues to receive her until she reaches near the man, the director then cut to another wide shot of the bus stop where we see someone there beside the heroine.  

The director in a few seconds establishes the time and the place of his film and the psychological mode of the heroine, then he cuts to the same place in the same angle, but it's coming closer, while we see the heroine looks forward to the side of the road in anticipation and waiting for the bus and look at her hand watch, and then we listen to her voice from outside the scene ( it is exact seven o'clock in a cold winter day) and then the shot changes into a shot represents the point of view of  her companion who also waiting for the bus while we listen to her voice ( the day is such as yesterday is such as tomorrow).

Those words will remind us the absurd theater, but now we're not at the moment of absurdity, it's a moment of a contemporary citizen represents us and pronounces what is taking place in our souls, where the whole film belongs to the strong time - in dramatic terminology - every detail, every second is placed carefully to install the psychological state and a common humane sense we all share.

And while the heroine continuing her narration, her companion interrupts her asking for the time, we have been knowing this person before in the wide shot therefore the director brings him directly in a close shot, while the heroine continues its commentary, which makes us see what she sees, she knows nothing about this man except he is just a person, now she knows how he wears and what he holds in his hand and she expresses to us about her impressions about him.

This eloquent filmic style can not be not made, but a veteran director, who knows how to present the characters of the film in a perfect time to shorten the bitter thinness and dwell that we are used to in the Egyptian cinema, and sometimes in the international cinema.

We are now more familiar with this person but the curiosity still exist as the heroine, in this way the film flows in skilled and eloquent language.

The film starts from this moment, it is just a dialogue between two persons, which is about the extraordinary experience of this man's life, without containing those delusions that we learned in our study of the dramatic film which must contains a crisis, the crisis turns into a conflict and to keep developing to reach its summit until the triumph of one of the counterparts, which often make us satisfied.

It is a modernism film, as an art theory had been establishing during the new wave in France in the sixties of the twentieth century which reaches the height of its luster in the movies of Abbas Kiarostami, especially his Taste of cherry-which winning the golden Palme in 1997, where the structure of the film shortens the life by the life itself to hit the basics of traditional filmmaking.

The bus contains on the language of literary dialogue seriously, especially in the monologue of the man who speaks of his career as a former war photographer, and his former job and what happened to him and the end of his work and then discharged from the work.

We may ask, is this man crazy? Although the director reveals him to us when we see him goes back in panic and we discover later that he saw nothing to fear about, he is quite crazy, but we do not accuse him, we also do not deal with his madness as a disease because we are like him.

How can we dare to accuse the man who summarizes our pain in this difficult time? The heroine herself does not consider him as a madman.
Kareem Ibrahim wrote this script depending on a short story written by him, to see a practical example of the director- author theory, but this theory goes to a new level with Kareem Ibrahim, It a promised era where any author can make his film, by investing this new media to enrich his literary, because one picture equals a thousand word.

The modernism of the film and the literary and accurate of the dialogue to expressing the characters and their modes, and the use of the hand camera instead of the fix one, and employing the music with such dexterity through one theme repeats continuously - Kareem is the one who composed and played it himself - and presenting the film by these very short shots, which lasts Seconds to summarize generously everything and express the two characters, and the good narration.

All these touches present him as a first class director, and we can not consider him as an amateur, he is very professional has his tools and able to do all he wants eloquently and easily, we are about a promised director, I wish him to continue and I am confident that he will able to get what he deserves.

The director Kareem Ibrahim (or Kareem Kandil) is the son of the Alexandrian stage actor Mohammad Ibrahim, he was born in Alexandria in 1981, he obtained a bachelor of science from the University of Alexandria, he has been involved in the Alexandrian theater movement since childhood, he acted in a play for children starring Iman Elserafy, Ezzat Alemam and Jehan Noor and directed by theater artistic director Sobhy Yosif.

He worked a period of time in graphics in Alexandria and then traveled to Germany to continue his work in graphics; He is in Germany now working for a company receives requests for foreign students.

He did not learn in a professional cinema institute but the impact of Rainer Fassbinder, Godard, Abbas Kiarostami are shown completely in his film which deserves to be praised.
You can see the film at the following link: -

I wrote this article in Arabic first and posted it in the two following links;-

All good wishes.

Mamdough Shalaby.