Tips from the culture desk: Plenty of reasons to stay in the city

This week is sandwiched between two long weekends so there’s plenty of time to steal at least one of them away. But for those planning to take it easy in Cairo, there is a lot in store.

Several exhibitions continue throughout the week, including the group exhibition Roznama 5, Mohamed Allam's The Contents of the Grocery Bag at the Contemporary Image Collective and Byrony Dunne’s They Usually Lie Around a Grotto at Townhouse. After Eight DJ and visual artist Dina El-Gharib also opens an exhibition called Windows at Zamalek’s Gallery Misr on Sunday.

Cimatheque screening program — all week except Monday

Cimatheque’s first season of public programing offers a busy and exciting October for Cairo cinephiles, starting with Tawfiq Saleh’s 1969 thriller about police corruption and the inefficiency of the law, Diary of a Country Prosecutor(4 pm Saturday), and Black Power Mixtape (2011), a Swedish-made documentary collage about the US civil rights movement between 1967 and 1975 (Sunday and Tuesday).

A program curated by filmmaker Mohammad Shawky Hassan titled “Family Album” — exploring family histories — starts on Tuesday, including an intriguingly titled “Mosalsalat Day” (Shawky Hassan has written about Egyptian soap operas here).

Later in the month, Cimatheque’s tribute to Mohamed Khan ends with A Dinner Date (1981), a domestic crime drama Amany Ali Shawky has called one of the most romantic movies of all time (October 21), and its ongoing program “Revisiting Memory” includes Attayet al-Abnoudi's shorts (October 15), Youssef Chahine's incomplete scripts (October 12), and Wael Omar and Philippe Dib’s doc In Search of Oil and Sand on the 13th, about an elderly aristocrat’s search for an amateur film — a historical drama about a military coup, made by high society as the country was changing irrevocably in 1952 (October 14).

There’s also a lot more — see the full program here. Every day except Mondays, Cimatheque, 19a Adly Street, downtown Cairo. Tickets LE15. Space is limited, so early attendance recommended.

Very Big Shot — all week

Zawya had to take a short break to allow for a lot of Eid releases to take over its alternative film screen. Happily for us it’s back now with a new release from Lebanon which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2015: Film Kiteer Kebeer (Very Big Shot). Directed by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, it’s a comic crime caper about two brothers running a drug dealing business out of their Beirut pizzeria. They invest in one last job, which — as one might expect — gets complicated.

Every day between 1 pm and 10 pm at Zawya, behind Cinema Odeon, downtown Cairo. Tickets LE25. More details here.

Cactus Flower — Tuesday & Wednesday

Artist Hala Elkoussy has created the costumes and set design for this new dance work, as well as co-creating the concept with Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler. It is part of Elkoussy’s ongoing filmmaking effort, for which she ran a crowdfunding campaign last year, for a film also called Cactus Flowerabout three strangers who come together after a banal catastrophe leaves them homeless in Cairo. “How do we communicate? How are we able to be ourselves and yet part of a group? How do we deal with roles, power and collective pressure?” reads the blurb. “Improvisations and choreographed sequences alternate and communicate with a spoken script and the sound score composed by Stéphane Vecchione.” It goes to the Biblioteca Alexandrina on October 10.

8 pm, October 4 and 5, Falaki Theater, downtown Cairo. Free entrance. See Facebook event here.

Tara El Bahr second edition — launches Thursday

After a first edition and website launch in May of this year, Gudran Association for Art and Development is launching the second print edition of Tara El Bahr, an Alexandria-based publication analyzing cultural and art practices, architecture and everyday life in the city through reviews, event coverage, translations and photography. Tara El Bahr has an online platform in addition to irregular print editions.

Launching 6 pm, Thursday October 6 at Wekalet Behna, 1 Mammar al-Central, Manshia, Alexandria.

Abdel Nasser and the Culture of an Era— opens Tuesday

Almost a week after the day itself, and commemorations for the 46th anniversary of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s death continue in Cairo. This Tuesday, Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center in Mounira commemorates the event with an exhibition titled Abdel Nasser and the Culture of an Era, featuring the collection of Hossam Abdel Hady, former deputy editor for Rose al-Youssef magazine. It could be interesting.

Opens 7 pm, 3 October at the Saad Zaghloul Culture Center, Beit al-Omma, 2 Saad Zaghloul Street, Mounira, Cairo.