In the Last Days of the City

press release:

Tamer El Said in person!

IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY (AKHER AYAM EL MADINA)

Egypt | 2016 | DCP | 118 min. | Arabic with English subtitles

Director: Tamer El Said

Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Laila Samy, Hanan Youssef

On the cusp of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, an overwhelmed young filmmaker (The Kite Runner’s Khalid Abdalla) struggles to complete a project about Cairo. This reflexive drama of creative stalemate and political alienation has won comparisons to 1960s masterworks 8 1/2 and Memories of Underdevelopment, but as an immersive portrait of a city in flux, it discovers poetry entirely its own. Director Tamer El Said will be present for a Q&A after the screening. Presented with support from UW Madison’s Middle Eastern Studies program. Special thanks to Jonathan Howell, Nevine El-nossery and Jon Vickers. 

Premiere Showcase is the Cinematheque’s effort to bring the boldest and most exciting new cinema back to the big screen. Crafted with the same curat­orial acuity we bring to our repertory series, Premiere Showcase presents exciting new work by contem­porary directors that would otherwise have no theatrical venue in the area. Our selections for this calendar include two acclaimed films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival: the Zellner Brothers’ Western comedy Damsel and Panos Cosmatos’ visionary revenge fantasy Mandy, starring a delightfully unhinged Nicolas Cage. Also in September, Casting is a new German movie that exposes the sometimes harmful casting process for a remake of a Fassbinder classic. Plus, Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El Said will appear in person to discuss his meta-film about filmmaking In the Last Days of the City, and our annual collaboration with Madison’s Asian-American Media Spotlight brings two films to the Cinematheque: Miao Wang’s documentary Maineland and the contemplative drama August at Akiko’s.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.