“Medfest Egypt” honored the artist Sawsan Badr, at the opening of its fifth session (Thursday evening) at the Tahrir Cultural Center at the American University in Cairo. The honor came in celebration of her career in cinema, theater and television, while she praised the festival, stressing that it is “unique and different, concerned with raising medical issues.”
“Medfest Egypt” is a cinematic forum that seeks to build bridges between medicine and cinema, and to merge health with drama by showing short, documentary and fictional films that reflect health and psychological problems, and holding seminars and workshops on the subject. It was founded by two doctors united by their love of cinema: the Egyptian Mina Al-Najjar, who recently participated in the series “Revo,” and the Sudanese Khaled Ali, a psychiatrist and film critic.
Artist Sawsan Badr with Mina Al-Najjar during the opening (festival management)
For the first time, the event holds a short film competition that includes 24 films from 11 countries, chosen from among 800. Director Yousry Nasrallah chairs a jury that includes actress Tharaa Jbeil and producer Mohamed Taymour.
Mina Al-Najjar pointed out, during his speech at the opening ceremony, that “during its previous sessions, the festival presented film screenings inside hospitals for doctors and patients, and held some of its activities in Egyptian governorates, and it plays an important cultural and medical role.”
Its fifth session takes the idea of “stigma” as its theme. Khaled Ali justifies this choice, saying to Asharq Al-Awsat: “It is a problem facing some mentally ill people, or AIDS patients, and people with special needs. Stigma has consequences for them, as society refuses to deal with them on the basis that they are human beings with rights and duties, which makes them feel ashamed, lose self-confidence, and feel humiliated, and leads them to isolation that exacerbates their crises. We show films that reflect this reality and push for behavior change, and we also hold a photo competition that addresses this idea.”
He points out that “the fifth session is witnessing a development in form and content, as prizes are awarded for the best international short film, the best Egyptian film, and the best audience choice film, in the first film competition,” revealing that “(Medvest Egypt) is communicating with the Faculty of Medicine in Brighton, Britain.” .
Critic Ahmed Shawky moderates the dialogue with director Yousry Nasrallah (festival management)
In this context, director Yousry Nasrallah presented (Friday) a “Master Class” entitled “Characters and Worlds,” through a dialogue moderated by critic Ahmed Shawky, which addressed the various characters in his films, with their life difficulties and social challenges. He said: “I do not like victim characters,” stressing that “the characters in his films must be interesting, and this makes him review them for a long time in their dialogue and vocabulary.”
The opening ceremony witnessed the presence of artists and directors; Among them: Khairy Bishara, Yousry Nasrallah, and Khaled Al-Hajar. It also witnessed the honoring of consultant psychiatrist Dr. Nabil Al-Qat, one of the regular participants in the forum, in addition to the screening of two short films, one of which is “Kids,” which is a Swiss animated film, and the other is “The Discourse.” It is an Egyptian short novel by Abanoub Nabil, starring Zainab Khalil. He deals with cases of patients with acquired immunodeficiency in group therapy sessions.
The festival offers a number of workshops, including a workshop by writer Maryam Naoum for doctors interested in film and television writing, to train on the basic principles and how to draw characters and formulate a plot. Dr. Mona Al-Rakhawi will also present a workshop on fear and hesitation from visiting a psychiatrist, to discussions about the mental health of actors and doctors, and about “stigma” and prejudices.
