Outstanding Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, greatest recognized internationally for groundbreaking epic “The Yacoubian Constructing,” extra just lately shot “El Set,” a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum, who is taken into account the Arab world’s biggest singer.
Kulthum has additionally been praised by Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, amongst different Western artists, and sampled by Beyonce and Shakira.
Hamed’s new Arabic blockbuster with worldwide ambitions, now in submit, options Egyptian star Mona Zaki enjoying the vocalist born within the Nile delta village of Tamay al‐Zahirah, who from the late Twenties onwards turned the primary Arab singer to disseminate her work to the plenty through the brand new applied sciences of the instances: radio, the phonograph, cinema and tv.
Within the course of, Kulthum recorded some 300 songs over a 60-year profession, whereas conquering tens of millions of followers and disrupting gender norms along with her highly effective, usually politically charged, music.
A sneak 18-minute peek of footage from “El Set” – which is co-produced by Egypt’s Synergy Movies, Movie Sq. and Movie Clinic, and by Saudi Arabian movie fund Large Time Funding – might be unveiled throughout the upcoming Atlas Workshops held throughout Morocco’s Marrakech Competition, which opens at this time.
Selection spoke to Hamed about what Kulthum stands for past her excellent singing and why she remains to be very well timed and related at this time.
Umm Kulthum clearly is the Arab world’s biggest singer. However she additionally carries quite a lot of symbolic significance. She’s a Muslim lady artist who was capable of transcend all sexual, non secular, political and nationwide boundaries. Discuss to me about what facets of her story and character “El Set” delves into?
Probably the most fascinating factor within the movie is principally: How did this little woman who used to decorate as a boy in a really poor village develop into this icon? That’s the predominant facet. It’s not solely about her success in music, but in addition: How did she develop into a feminine icon? That’s actually what the movie is about. Her transformation and her wrestle with society and the way she modified the way in which she was perceived, till she rises, and her nickname within the Arab world turns into El Set, which suggests “The Woman.” That’s the reason we selected “El Set” because the movie’s title. It’s her moniker within the Arab world. However on the similar time, it actually represents her journey. In doing our analysis we realized that – wow – she did wonderful stuff!
What are a few of the most important sides of Umm Kulthum’s journey?
For instance, she was one of many first ladies to get elected within the [Arab] musician’s syndicate. She gained that battle, and that was one thing that wasn’t frequent on the time, within the mid-40s. She additionally actually defied society in terms of marriage and household, and all this custom of the strain that society places on a lady, and this sort of – how can I name it – wrestle between profession and household. What’s wonderful about her is that she made her personal decisions. Those she believed in. No matter what anybody else thought she ought to do. This is essential, and is, I feel, essentially the most highly effective factor she did. She made her personal decisions, and achieved that in a society that didn’t reside that method. Whether or not that was the society of her village or the monarchy, or the post-revolution, post-1952, Egypt.
Inform me extra concerning the movie’s feminine empowerment parts
I imply, she had her moments at each twist and switch of the societal modifications of that point. On the similar time, she exerted a number of political affect. Whenever you take a look at her story at this time – and put it within the context of at this time’s world – there are quite a lot of parallels you may make. That’s what is so fascinating about her story, you could actually correlate it to the current. So, principally the narrative follows this in a method, in a little bit of a non-linear method.
What about Umm Kulthum’s character?
We’ve explored her internal fears, as a result of that is one thing that she and quite a lot of different individuals have spoken about. Many individuals have this far-removed impression of her as a result of she’s all the time shot in lengthy photographs from afar on stage, projecting a sure [distanced] picture that she deliberately tried to take care of. However the movie can be an ideal alternative to delve into her internal fears, as a result of she wasn’t a superwoman. She had her fears and to attain what she did, it wasn’t simple.
Discuss to me about working with Mona Zaki who in fact is coming off the latest success of feminine empowerment thriller “Flight 404,” which is Egypt’s Oscar contender and has travelled exterior the area.
This can be a very demanding position that wanted somebody with Mona’s skills. She places in a tour de drive efficiency that I feel may have a really robust emotional affect on viewers. By way of prep, for a whole yr Mona went via singing classes, motion classes, dialect teaching, and many make-up rehearsals. She needed to sit within the [makeup] chair for six hours every single day earlier than the cameras rolled. It’s a really demanding position as a result of you aren’t simply specializing in one interval of Umm Kulthum’s life, you’re leaping backwards and forwards between a number of totally different moments. That in itself could be very demanding, as a result of Umm Kulthum modifications rather a lot. Whenever you actually break down this character, it’s not only one character, as a result of the modifications she goes via are big. Mona gave it all the pieces, gave it a lot laborious work, and I actually suppose that the tip result’s going to have a strong resonance.
There’s a pan-Arabic component to the movie, in fact. However Umm Kulthum had followers all around the world. How is that this depicted within the movie?
In 1967, Umm Kulthum held her solely efficiency in Europe on the Olympia Theatre in Paris. Within the movie we see her on the age of 70 performing in Paris in entrance of an enormous crowd. It was a really heated political second, after the 1967 [Arab-Israeli] struggle. And this tells you ways influential she was. I all the time take into consideration that second: the struggle had taken place in June, and there she was in November, performing in Europe at a relatively previous age. This actually tells you ways influential and the way highly effective she was. And nonetheless is.
Beneath: a primary look picture of “El Set”
Courtesy of Movie Clinic
