Home  .  About 2013 Festival  .  Art Exhibition  .  Artists' Work  .  Curators  .  Literature  .  Music  .  Film
On a Caravan

Return to Festivals/Exhibitions page

 

Film

2013 Caravan Festival of the Arts

Amr Waked

On 11 May at 7 PM renowned Egyptian actor Amr Waked (Contagion, Syriana and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) gave a talk and Q & A, followed by the screening of his recent feature film on the revolution, titled Winter of Discontent.

Amr Waked represents someone who is globally recognized as proactively using the Arts to build bridges between the East and West. Apropos to the purpose of CARAVAN, Amr has said: “News writes history from the perspective of politicians. Film writes history from the perspective of the people.”

 

Amr Waked speaking  

Amr Waked sharing with the packed audience

 

An attentive crowded audience listening to Amr Waked

  Amr Waked taking questions

Amr Waked is an Egyptian actor, known for his roles portraying Middle Eastern and Mediterranean characters. He is best known to international audiences and in Hollywood as the terrorist leader in the 2005 film Syriana (2005). He also played the role of Rafik in Steven Soderbergh's movie Contagion and Yemeni Sheikh Muhammad in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Amr was born on April 12, 1973. He is a graduate of the American University in Cairo, and has performed in theatre from 1992 through 2002. He has worked in many films. Many know of him for his role in 2005 when he worked alongside George Clooney in the film Syriana, for which in 2006 he won a 'Special Award for Arabs in The International Cinema' at the Cairo International Film Festival. After numerous other films, he more recently joined Hollywood stars Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow in the 2011 film, Contagion.
And he co-starred in the British film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, and Kristin Scott Thomas. In 2013, he won "best actor" at Dubai Film Festival for the Egyptian film Winter of Discontent.

Waked joined the 2011 Egypt anti-government protests. He has said [on the influence on filmmaking of the 2011 'Arab spring']: “It will be a new page in the industry of filmmaking and art in general. I think all revolutions, even if they don't achieve all of their goals, achieve freedom of expression. We're like a little chick. We just broke the egg. We didn't come out yet but it's a matter of time.”

Following his talk, his most recent film, Winter of Discontent, was shown. The film is set against the momentous backdrop of the whirlwind protests of Cairo’s Tahrir Square that began on January 25th, 2011. This film, by one of the most important independent film directors in the Middle East, Ibrahim El Batout, takes us on a compellingly raw, starkly moving journey into the lives of activist Amr (Amr Waked), journalist Farah (Farah Youssef) and state security officer Adel (Salah Alhanafy). Winter of Discontent poetically explores the anguish of a victim of state terror in 2009, presaging and intertwining with the pivotal events in 2011 that changed the face of Egypt. As the stories of the characters unfold, we are propelled headlong into the heady, often surreal atmosphere of terror and uncertainty that characterized the last days of Mubarak’s rule.