Zawya cinema to join permanent Alexandria art scene

Art house cinema Zawya has taken up a weekly slot at Alexandria's Cinema Amir, adding to the highly successful permanent screen it has run in downtown Cairo's Cinema Odeon since March 2014. 

In collaboration with two of Alexandria's independent production houses, Fig Leaf Studios and Rufy's, Zawya will be running one screening a week at the popular Cinema Amir, which lies at the busy intersection of Safeya Zaghloul Street and Fouad Street in downtown Alexandria.

Zawya has already run one-off screenings at this cinema in collaboration with local Alexandrian partners, but is hoping it could become a more permanent location.

The first event is set to take place on November 14, with a screening of Jordanian director Naji Abu Nawar's critically acclaimed Theeb (2014), which was shown at Cinema Odeon in June.

The film follows two young Bedouin men who attempt to take a British soldier across the Jordanian desert during the First World War. It won multiple awards during its festival run, the most notable of which was the Venice Film Festival's Orizzonti award for best director.

This is Zawya's second collaboration to screen films outside Cairo. Since May 2014, Tanta 's Cinema and Literature Lovers Association and Out of the Box bookshop have been collaborating with Zawya to screen films in Rivoli cinemas in the Delta cities. So far they have screened Wadjda, Rock the Casbah, Jews of Egypt, and a few others, with the most recent box office hit being Palestinian production Eyes of a Thief starring Egyptian actor Khaled Abu Naga.

Zawya's mother company, Misr International Films, which was established by the acclaimed late director Youssef Chahine, also runs the annual screening programme Panorama of the European Film, bringing several European and Arab productions to screens in Cairo.

Now in its eighth edition, and scheduled to take place from November 25 until December 5, Panorama is also holding some of its programming outside of Cairo.

In a press release, Misr International Films announced it would be screening a portion of its Panorama program with its Alexandria and Tanta partners and extending its partnerships to Egypt's south, with screenings set to take place in Minya's City Scape Cinema in collaboration with Alwanat.