Palestinian director Hani Abu Asaad: The whole Arab world is suffering from Western colonialism

Cairo – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: The Cairo International Film Festival, at its 42nd session, currently held at the Egyptian Opera House, continued its activities for the fourth consecutive day, and Palestinian director Hani Abu Asaad apologized for attending his seminar at the festival, due to the circumstances of the Corona virus, and communicated with director Marwan Hamed at the seminar via “Video Call” technology.
Hamed said he was satisfied with the dialogue with sole director Hani Abu Asaad, one of the leading Arab and international directors.
“I apologize for not being able to come to Cairo, which is the only city where I feel even more at home than the Palestine which is under occupation. I feel that this is my freedom, Cairo is a city. free, ”Abu Asaad said at the start of the seminar.
He recounted his experience in the movie “The Mountain Between Us” with Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, noting that Kate Winslet called him once at four in the morning to discuss him in one scene until he comes out in the best way, and that she always came to the location before her date. Inside Palestine, he said: “Once I had a significant honor in Italy, and I was outside Palestine in Ramallah, the Israeli checkpoints stopped us for long hours. at the airport, and they took me to a huge old museum and I was insulted. I mean, the morning is humbled and the afternoon generous.

creativity

Abu Asaad added that the relationship between the editor and the director has to be good for the movie to come out well, because the editor is the second director in the movie and that’s part of the creativity. Hani Abu Asaad said his study of mechanical engineering had helped him a lot in the field of film, commenting, “The engineer needs a large imagination, but he is defined by accounts and numbers. In addition, art needs a large imagination which is not defined by accounts and numbers, but which has rules, for example a joke that laughs in Egypt may not laugh in Japan, for example. “About the movie” Princess “, he said that since he knew his idea. He wanted to make it, but Muhammad Diab wrote and directed it, commenting: “I was very happy with the film because I liked that an Egyptian person presented a film that talks about the Palestinian question with that sincerity that was presented, and this success has come because all of us in the Arab world are under colonialism in Western countries so far. .

the price

He pointed out, that he could not have imagined winning the Golden Globe Award for the movie “Heaven Now”, commenting: “I used to feel while I was there in Hollywood that I was a stuntman compared to the directors and big stars who got it, and that could be because we represent a country that only exists in wrestling, because it’s under occupation. He continued: “When I won the award, there was a change and everyone kept talking to me and asking me a lot, and I didn’t feel like we won the Golden Globes, because all countries celebrated in the streets with the winners, but we in Palestine were empty streets.
Regarding his new film, “Omar”, he said that he was born from the nightmare that had become due to the spread of the Corona virus before the shooting. I knew the film he presented before that would have failed, because everything is artificial and everything artificial fails.
Abu Asaad stressed that his film debut was a fluke when he met Palestinian director Rashid Mashharawi and worked with him as an assistant, and that Egyptian cinema was the medium of communication with the world. Arab. He confirmed that many Egyptian directors were unlucky in the West and that there were great Egyptian films. Like the movie “Gossip over the Nile” or “A Good Day and a Day Pass” they deserved to be nominated for the Oscar, and there is a Spanish film a copy of “Gossip Over the Nile” which was nominated, indicating that there is hostility towards the Arab world and its directors.