Rumors had it the United States of America's embassy in Cairo denied Egyptian director Yousif Shahin 40 visas to the US, needed to take the entire crew of his upcoming film "Ghadab" (Anger) to shoot the final scenes. Despite the rumors, the truth of the matter is that Yousif had requested a lot less than 40 visas, for he only needed to take a few selected actors who have parts that require to be filmed in the US.
According to the Arab magazine Laha, Yousif revealed that the only actors who will be needed in the US are the main one like Yusra, Libliba, Mahmoud Hamida, and his assistant Khalid Yousif. Shahin added that to take the whole cast would require a very large budget which he does not have, in addition to the fact that it would be a loss of time for they only have 20 percent of the film left to shoot in the US. The director had made it a point to shoot most of the scenes in Egypt and complete them before heading to the US.
Since Yusra was personally invited by American superstar Robert De Niro, who is head of the Tribeca film festival in New York, to be a member of the judging committee, Shahin had decided to take advantage of this opportunity to set May as the date for some of the cast of the film to travel to the US in order to shoot the final scenes.
In the film, Yusra plays the role of an American woman, Angy, who is the lover of an Egyptian film director Yahia. The theme of the film revolves around an Egyptian director who has lived in the United States from the beginning of his film education up to the September 11th attack. It also portrays the relationship the two have and how all of the sudden the life of the director turns into a nightmare during the attacks on the US. At this moment Yahia begins to experience feelings of anger and hate towards his American girlfriend and finds himself hating everything in America. The movie will be shot between France and the US with scenes from Paris, New York, and California.
Shahin is keen on selecting a new face in most of his films. In his new film he tapped the ballet dancer Ahmed Yahya to play the starring role as Shahin when he was young during his university study in the USA.
The film takes place during the period between1946-2001 and tackles Shahin’s links with the west especially the United States. Events will start with love and ended with up the September 11th attack rousing anger or hatred for the United States for many reasons including its bias in favor of Israel. –Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
