Collaborations with Cairo’s Cimatheque

Stefanie Schulte Strathaus has spent a considerable amount of time living in Cairo and working closely with the staff at Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre. She presents two recently completed restorations by the Egyptian archive. Sad Song of Touha by Atteyat Al Abnoudy is a dreamlike portrait of Cairo’s street performers, whose stories are told by the voice of poet Abdel Rahman El-Abnoudy. Hussein Shariffe’s The Dislocation of Amber was filmed in the city of Suakin, formerly a flourishing port in Sudan, now reduced to ruins. Also shown will be a selection of home movies shot in Egypt from the Rafla Collection, amassed by Magdy Rafla, a jeweler who was also a passionate film collector.