Spring Nights.

Spring nights on Pont des Arts with Miss Monika Samoraj will be incredibly missed.

Indeed.

Indulge, indeed.

A Cairo that I don't know, yet.

I am coming home.
In five days, I will be home.
Cairo, Egypt.
Everytime I think about going back home, I see photos of Tahrir, it was my last memory of Cairo before leaving, just one day after Mubarak left.
It scares me that it doesn't look like that anymore. It scares me that it doesn't look like anything I know anymore.
It's not the Cairo I grew up in, it's not the Cairo of the revolution. It's a new Cairo. A Cairo that I don't know as well as I wish. A Cairo that I don't know, yet.
I am scared and excited to meet her, this new Cairo. To see if she treats me like an old friend or a new alien. To see how she sees me now, with her newly bought glasses.

Photos above were taken on Friday, 11th of February, 2011 at Tahrir Square.
My last solid memory of Cairo.

Revolution movies:18 days.

In the revolutionary spirit of the day, I decided to write about the movie "18 days" or "Tamantashar youm" which was screened during the Cannes film festival.
The movie is actually 10 short movies by 10 different directors, each adding a piece to the puzzle that is the revolution.
I wanted to like the movie(s), to love them. I really did. But I didn't.
I thought it was premature, it was raw. It had the potential to be a lot more than it turned out to be. 
My problem with the movies were that they were too shallow, they didn't dig deep enough, they took some very powerful emotions and treated them very softly. Too softly actually.
I liked some of them very much, though.
I though Kamla Abu Zikry's "God's creation" was the deepest, and the less obvious one. She took a very simple story and actually worked on it, adding depth to her characters. 
Also, "Curfew" and "Revolution cookies" were very nicely done.
To tell the truth, I was a bit dissapointed by the whole thing, I expected more.
But maybe it's too early to make movies about the revolution. I am quite sure it is indeed too early. The revolution is not over yet for us to start telling it's stories. 
We need more time, more space in order to see the revolution, to actually observe it enough to be able to write and tell it to the rest of the world. 
The movie was too "made up" to be a documentary and too obvious to be a feature.

#FreeUs

I am so angry, I can't help it.
It takes a lot of anger for me to write about anything related to politics.
But why are three artists now detained at the Military Police HQ in Cairo for handing out POSTERS inviting people to go back to Tahrir tomorrow?
When did the SCAF become so scared, so terrified and so threatened of the same people who supported them at the begining?
How do you arrest people to stop people protesting against arresting people?
How stupid are the SCAF? for real?
Anyways, we would like to sincerely thank you for giving us more reason to want to take to the streets tomorrow. 
You are leading the way, we are just following.
You only have yourself to blame. 
#FreeGanzeer #FreeAida #FreeNadim

Tree of Beautiful.

Tree of life.
I had to go see for myself, I always do. 
I am glad I did, because it was beautiful.
It is a beautiful movie. Literally.
The camera movement, the direction, the frames, the music, the angles, the words everything is just so beautiful, it leaves you in awe.
I am over using the word beautiful because I think it's the only word that can fully describe this movie. About 8 people left the movie theatre before the ending, some even at the very begining, which I actually found was a good thing, because this movie is not for everybody. This movie is the strongest soft movie I've been to. It takes you into the mind of Terrance Malick, into his heart, you can almost feel his heartbeats with every frame. I can imagine the passion, the pain and the joy he experienced while writing and directing this "movie". It's not a movie. It's too much more than just a movie to be called a movie.
It shouldn't be put in the same category as Mean Girls ( with all respect, it's one of my personal favourites), but no.
It's a very long short movie. It's done in a romanticism that we see more in shorts than in features. Also, the plot line is too abstract to call it a feature, it's too beautiful to be a feature.
Okay, there is only one thing I didn't really like about it, though.
The whole animal planet meet discovery channel in the begining of the movie felt somehow irrelevant, or maybe just too long (about 25 minutes). Some people thought it was time to think about the ideas he introduced to us in the first 15 minutes of the movie, but I personally felt it was too long and a little bit too National Geographic for my taste. Said all that, I have to admit that even that, was done beautifully. 
I want to talk about the acting, but I don't really know how to. They barely act. You barely see Sean Penn. It's barely a movie.
I am still a little bit overwhelmed by the movie.
Chapeau, Mr.Malick, you deserved your Palme d'or, beautifully.


P.S: The photo is taken by me and is in no way is realted to the movie.

Because I Cannes!

Now that I am back to Paris Land, I can tell you all (or not really all) about my Cannes- adventures from the comfort of my bed, while listening to favourite music and eating madelines.
It was the most tiring, exhausting, amazing, different, fun experience I've ever had.
Apart from all the glam and glitter of the whole Cannes thing, it really is about business. Or as a wise Parisian told me it's about business on the beach, BB, business on the beach.
You go from meeting to meeting, and from meetings to cocktails and from cocktails to soirées and from soirées to after-soireés. It really is a lot of work. Champagne-mixed work, though!
The sad part is amidst all that, you don't have time to watch movies anymore. You go to Cannes to either make business or watch movies, you can't do both. Believe me, I tried.
I still managed to see some movies, though. But that'll be a whole other post.
As of the highlights of my trip, it included major star-spotting, including seeing The De Niro three times AND Jude Law and Uma Thurman having dinner two tables away from mine at the Carlton!
Yeah, it was pretty awesome!
And in case you are all wondering, I lost a lot of weight somewhere between walking up and down La Croisette an average of 3 times a day, not having enough time to stop for a sandwich, and of course surviving on champagne!
Also, I got tanned due to the same walk up and down La Croisette, as I of course didn't have enough time to go to the beach. No, not even once.
For the whole eleven days, I didnot wear bikinis or shorts or summer dresses. No, not even once.
Oh, and also, I got sick. Literally. I had a cold, full with runny nose and sore throat. Very glamorous, eh?
I think that's all for now. More detailed posts with photos will be out soon, just wait for it ;)

Lost in translation.

-Hey Mag, do you mind putting your waker on?
-My what?
-Your waker.
-You mean my alarm!
-Yes, your alarm.

Don't you just love it when frenchies literally try to translate words and end up saying the most absurd of them?

The red carpet!

And this is how it's done.
Cannes, 2011.

Poor you!

"Cannes is the only place where they can stop Tarantino at the door because he doesn't have an invitation"
Parties in Cannes are all about exclusivity. If you don't know the right people, you will never get in, or even know about those parties!
But even when you do get in, after hours of planning the right tactics to use, carefully choosing your words and making more than a few phone calls, the smile full of victory and pride all over your face slowly fades away when they deny you access to the terrace because for that you need a "special" kind of invite that you of course don't have.
Poor you, thinking you actually made it in.

The photo above was taken at the Wild Bunch party, at their rented villa overlooking the whole of Cannes. With great music, a view to die for, AND an open bar, Wild Bunch are certainly living up to their name!

Hello,Bob!

Monsieur le président; Robert De Niro.
I can probably die happy now.

Day one, Part two.

Well, that's Cannes for you!

Cannes: Day One.

Okay, this is serious now.
Working with a production company, I had to go socialize and mingle with people at the "pavillons" of each country. 
Bottom line: Egyptians suck. No really, they do.
You ask me why? I tell you because out of all the booths I've been to and all the people I talked with, Egyptians were the most rude, unclassy and unprofessional.
I don't know if it was because I am Egyptian, as Egyptians tend to be rude to fellow Egyptians or are they just rude to everyone!
Be careful Egypt, because as the "country of honour", you should be a little more hospitable than that!

Live from Cannes!

Good morning,
After a long 12 hour ride from Paris, we finally arrived to Cannes late last night!
The whole city is working for the festival. I think the festival IS the city.
It's beautiful though. 
Photos will be posted as soon as I have the time to upload them.
Wait for it cause Cannes is proving to be even more interesting that I thought it would be!
I am sending you some sun and sand from a balcony on the fifth floor, overlooking the French Riviera ;)

The sad smile.

Madrid, spring 2011.

From Cannes with love.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, 
After recovering from my traumatising door-locking experience, I am here to deliver some good news.
No, scratch that, I am here to deliver amazing news, to say the least.
After months and months of applying to a couple of hundred internships. I got one.
Wait till you here the detailssss!
I will be working as an intern for a film production company at the....wait for it.... FESTIVAL DE CANNES!
Hell yeah, I am serious.
I am leaving on Wednesday morning and will be staying there for the whole of the eleven days.
I am not very popular now among my friends as they all hate me, but it's okay, I would've had the same reaction if it was someone else. Probably even worse.
Even my boss is amazing. 26 year old frenchie from the south.
Conclusion: you my dear friends are in for a treat, live from the very heart of the Cannes.
Enough said.

This is the real life.

This post is not about the romantic life of Paris, or how lovely it is to walk in it's streets and drench in it's sun.
No, this post is about the real life of an Egyptian in Paris. No fashion shows, and no revolutions. Plain old real life.
This post is about one of the weirdest days of my life in Paris, and in my life in general.
I wake up in the morning, only to find that my shitty little french phone which I am using now because my dear blackberry is at the gurantee at the moment is dead, all due to the fact that my lovely baba took my charger with him to Cairo. Perfect start to the day!
Okay, I have to leave now to catch my meeting, I get out of my apartment, close the door, and voila, I am locked out. Yes, I forgot my keys in there.
Of course, I decided to go on with my day like nothing happened. I went to the nearest SFR, bought another shitty little french phone for 20 euros so I can reach anyone.
Fast forward four hours later, I am with my parent's Egyptian friend who lives here, I called hom to come and help me out with the door shitness. We call the service depannage which is responsible for helping you and bla bla bla. They came an hour late. Pas grave.
As any normal human being, we asked them how much will it cost, they said 100 euros, we said finee!
They come bla bla bla and do their thing, try the "radio" doesn't work, so they had to take the whole lock out.
After about 30 minutes of various shitnesses, it was time for me to pay.
How much? 1506,01 euros.
Yeah, I know.
Somewhere between calling the insurance company, and calling the police, I wanted to go home.
Yeah, we called the police, and they came. They were super nice and smiling. It made me feel even worse.
I am now in my living room, with an open door, waiting for the depannage people to come and put another lock on so I can safely sleep in my bed.
And this my dear friends, is the real life.

From time to time.

It's a known fact that I am a sucker for black and white, BUT, from time to time I like to surprise you with a splash of colour. This is it.
This is as colourful as they make them.
Don't get used to it.

pərˈspektiv.

per·spec·tive/pərˈspektiv/Noun:a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.