" [...] The first Egyptian movie goes back as far as the early twenties, which means it came at the same time that the international cinema was starting in different parts of the world like France and the United States of America."According to the London daily Elaph, Egyptian cinema started producing films long before international film festivals were created, which means that the Egyptian cinema was a major and independent element and not dependent. It continued moving toward perfection, because it was making at least 10 movies every year back then and it was nominated to win awards in the international cinema festivals. Even though Egyptian cinema stands in the dark side now, it still holds the base and the ability to bring out good productions that was inherited through generations.
"An independent movie done by young people called “Awqat Faragh” (Free Time) is considered among the low movies, which was produced in the mid of 2006 and many movie theaters are showing it on their screens. The scenario writer is young 19 years old ‘Omar Jamal’ and production is by Muhammad Mustafa. The entire film casts are young and it was their first experience in front of a camera excluding the actress “Randa Al Behairi” who had minor roles in a number of movies. [...]
"The main characters in the movie are ‘Hazem’ a rich young man that the whole group ‘his friends’ rely on, then comes ‘Ahmad’ comes from a very poor family who lives on a dream that one day things will get better for him and he falls in love with ‘May’.
"On the other hand ‘May’ is realistic and tries to be stable with her thoughts and behavior. The other characters are ‘Tareq’ who lives an easy life with his divorced mother and ‘Mina’ who lives a conflicting life styles for instance one day she put the ‘Hijab’ (Muslim women head cover) and another where she’s laying in her lover’s arms looking for lost affections. [...]
"One of the best things in the movie is the song “Dawayer” (Circles), written by the poet Abed Al Rahman Al Abnodi and composed and sang by the Lebanese singer Marwan Khouri.
"The movie is considered with all its positive and negative views as the one of the best experiences of young writers and actors, because it holds a real view of how cinema should be made. It also attempts to be realist in their views and in bringing real life experiences. It is needless to say that the Egyptian cinema critics nominated the movie as the best film of 2006".
Source: Albawaba.com (Jordan)
