Egypt in Athens festival – highlights and photos

May 5, 2010 by Anna

By Julie Jalloul

The highly anticipated festival, Egypt in Athens, took place on April 24 and 25, 2010 at Gazi. The festival, being the first of its kind in Greece, aimed at highlighting the depth of the overgrowing relationship that has brought Egypt and Greece together and closer for centuries especially in artistic, literary and traditional arenas.

Saturday morning of April 24th, during the informational zone, a conference was held in which well-established speakers discussed Egyptian folklore and literature. Also, they could not miss to mention the importance of the Egyptians living in Greece and Greeks living in Egypt – two very strong links which together create this special atmosphere in their relations.

Mr. Efthimios T. Soulogiannis, professor of history of Athens, presented the Greek writers of Egypt. Mr. George Economides, graduate from Cairo University in folklore and literature, took everyone back in time reminiscing his memories from old Alexandria, Ms. Persa Koumoutsi, an author and official translator of the famous Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz in Greece mentioned her point of view of the subject, and Christina Florou, an artist, spoke about art in ancient Greece and Egypt. Last, Nikos Nikitaridis, B’ vice president of Egyptian Greek league and Mohamed Rasad El Zafzaf emphasized the coexistence of the Egyptian and Greek communities.

In between these discussions a documentary was being screened entitled The Egypt of Greeks in History, which was produced by ERT national television.

In the afternoon, during the artistic zone, the well known movie Yacoubian Building was put on view by Marouan Hamendi. Based on the novel by the same title, the author Dr. Alaa El-Aswany does not shy away from weaving sordid tales of political corruption, sexuality and torture in his story. The film portrays all these elements through the lives of those who reside in the Yacoubian building, representing segments within the Egyptian society.

After that followed classical Arabic music concert by the band Al Mahabba creating a very warm and cheerful environment. Ayman Al Habachy, a famous Egyptian chef of Athens, closed the night leaving the visitors astonished by demonstrating live Egyptian delicatessens.

The event also included a zone dedicated to children which was operated at the Haridimos Shadow Theatre Museum inside the cultural center, Melina. Over the two days, individuals of all ages had the great opportunity to learn the secrets of creating shadow theatre characters and attend two performances named Karagiozis at Luna Park and Karagiozis the Baker by the S. Haridimos troupe. They also had the chance to learn about the traditional Egyptian puppet theatre and Aragoz, a traditional puppet in Egyptian popular culture, and the Egyptian shadow theatre techniques as well as attend two authentic Egyptian puppet theatre performances by top Egyptian artists, Nabil Mohamed Bahgat, Moustafa Osman Moustafa Osman and Aly Abu Zeid Souleiman.

This successful event was organized by the Intercultural Centre of Migration Service of City of Athens with the collaboration of the Muslim Association of Greece and the support of the Egyptian Cultural Center of Athens.

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