Tips from the culture desk: There’s a lot to do before Christmas

Exhibitions continue this week at Gypsum, Townhouse, CIC and Mashrabia. At Zawya you can catch Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next or Kawthar Younis’s A Present from the Past (read our review here). Kamla Abo Zikry’s new film A Day for Women will also be released in cinemas this week.

Underground/On the Surface — Sunday

Salma El Tarzi premiered Underground/On the Surface, which follows mahraganat music stars Oka, Ortega and Wezza at the start of their fame, at Dubai Film Festival in 2013 (winning the Muhr Arab Award for best documentary director), and unlike most documentaries it had a short commercial release in Egyptian cinemas in 2015. “With almost no budget and only a flip camera for the first half of shooting, Tarzi’s first film is as rugged and lo-fi as the mahraganat music itself," writes Mada's Maha Elnabawi in her review. "It almost seems to mirror the musicians’ evolution: as they rise to fame and acquire better equipment, Tarzi eventually gets a grant and thus a 6D camera, which lends a certain polish to the film’s second half.” The director will be available for a Q&A following the film.

7.30 pm, December 18, Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 1 Mahmoud Azmy Street, Zamalek, Cairo. In Arabic with English Subtitles. Entrance is free, but seating is limited.

Discursiveness — Monday

Discursiveness brings together artworks by Egyptian artist Dia Hamed and Swiss artist duo Yannick Jaquet and Fred Penelle. Combining printmaking, sculpture and painting with digital media and light, the exhibition attempts to blur the borders between tangible and intangible. “In an immersive non-discursive setup, Jacquet and Penelle address transmission in old school wood engraving, vintage technologies and digital masking, while Hamed procedurally shuffles through skill, tool and automation,” reads the event invitation.

Opening 7 pm, December 19 at Medrar, 7 Gamal Eddin Abu al-Mahasen, Garden City, Cairo. Open everyday except Friday from 3 to 9 pm until 19 January. More information here.

Sidewalk Salon book launch — Tuesday

After various launches abroad, architect Manar Moursi and writer and diplomat David Puig are finally launching their book Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs in Cairo in Cairo. The result of three years spent visually documenting the improvised chairs that dot Cairo's streets, the book uses polaroid photography, essays, poems and creative writing to explore various issues that affect the city through its street chairs. The duo will also present their online map, which shows chairs, their locations and their stories. 

6.30pm, Tuesday December 20, Townhouse Gallery Factory Space, Nabrawy Street, downtown Cairo. English, with Arabic translation provided.

Dinner at the Movies — Wednesday (postponed from last week)

The latest edition of Dinner at the Movies, a convivial monthly night programed by Cimatheque and hosted and catered Eish & Malh, focuses on urban life in cinema, including the poetic city symphony genre. Films include Charles Scheeler and Paul Strand’s Manhatta (New York, 1921) and Mannus Franken & Joris Ivens' Rain (Amsterdam, 1929), and Mohamed Khan’s Watermelon (Cairo, 1972). Brought out with each film is a different course of the meal, a creative culinary response to the film in question.

For the seated dinner, call 01098744014 or message Eish & Malh on Facebook. Casual attendees can sit upstairs on the mezzanine. Seating opens at 6 pm on a first-come first-serve basis. Films start at 7 pm sharp. Cost of the meal varies between LE125 and LE180.

Waking Up — Friday

This monodrama, based on Dario Fo's 1977 text, Il Risveglio, explores the life of a woman as she gets ready for work in the morning, sharing her stories and frustrations with the audience. Translated by Menha Batrawi, Waking Up is performed and directed by Doaa Hamza, and premiered in 2014. Hamza continues to prove a skilful theater maker, charismatically holding her own on stage.

7 pm, December 23, Osiris, 1 Seif Eddin Building, Second floor, Hassan Mourad Street, off Qasr al-Aini Street, Garden City, Cairo. Tickets LE25, reservations through 01067363433.