Writer and Director: Hala Galal
From Cairo is being shown as part of the SAFAR Film Festival, celebrating cinema of the Arab world. Written and directed by Hala Galal, it is a quirky documentary which focuses on the lives of two young women artists in Cairo, whom Galal introduces sensing they will inspire one another. Its quirkiness lies in its frequently fragmented aesthetic. There are lots of evocative scenes shot in the streets of Cairo, interspersed with domestic ones in which the central women interact or go about their daily business. Cairo’s streets are rammed with traffic and street sellers, often the only markers of the presence of women are the somewhat disturbing mannikins in shop windows. At times interior or exterior scenes – there’s a lot of footage of sitting in traffic – verge on the inconsequential.
We are shown little pieces of the separate lives of Heba Khalifa and Aya Youssef, including the moment when Galal brings the two of them together. Heba is an artist – a painter, photographer and writer. Her creative portraiture project, Homemade, began on Facebook. She describes it as an engagement with women and their relationships with their bodies. Heba invites other women to her apartment to share their stories. She is divorced and seems confident moving about the streets of Cairo without a veil. Much footage – rather too much, one feels – is devoted to her 6-year-old daughter, Ward. Why, one wonders, does Heba encourage Ward to dress up in various Disneyesque princess costumes?
Aya, or Yoko, is also an artist, but is altogether more shy than Heba and remains veiled for most of the film. We see her documenting life in Cairo with video footage or stills. She tells us in voice-over that she found the story she wanted to tell when she heard about Samar, a woman who had suffered violence at the hands of her husband. She follows a second character, Samar, but what Samar’s story is, and what exactly Aya’s film is about is unclear.
An issue with From Cairo is that it’s often hard to work out whose voice we’re hearing in the voice over. At the start it’s clearly that of Galal herself. And at other times the editing suggests the voice is that of the woman who at that moment is appearing on screen. But it’s not always straightforward and in general the film has a distinct lack of signposting. A new scene begins without any sense of what we’re moved on to, or why we’re being shown what we’re seeing. There are few clues to help us with location. Possibly this is a deliberate move and can be explained as Galal’s determination to break down cultural and filmic sterotypes. But the effect is to make the overall narrative hard to follow. For instance, we only hear the name ‘Homemade’ once, and then offered no further explanation. It’s all there on Google if you want to look it up, but it’s frustrating to feel you’re missing something.
The same happens in a cheerful section when we see Aya strapping on roller skates. We gradually come to understand that she is involved with some sort of roller-skating team sport in a Cairo stadium. Again, Google provides the explanation of the film’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Cairollers: the only team of young women in Cairo involved with Roller Derby. But unless you are already familiar with this phenomenon, you may feel a bit in the dark. What is evident, however, is the importance to Aya of taking part in this fierce-looking game. She talks animatedly of its being her main support.
The main themes that emerge from the film are the importance of female resilience, and of being able to express your ideas creatively. There’s a lot about women and shame, and we can see how Heba reflects this in her art. Aya talks of women’s experience of harassment on the streets but this theme is left underdeveloped. From Cairo is undoubtedly a brave film, in that Galal determinedly breaks through the barriers imposed by her country on artistic freedom. But at times its lack of clear direction can be a frustrating.
The SAFAR Film Festival runs from 29 June – 9 July 2023.
