Egyptian documentary highly acclaimed at Addis Ababa Film Festival

Nevine Shalaby, an Egyptian director, received great acclaim for her documentary film about Egypt's revolution, The Agenda and I, at the Addis Ababa International Film Festival this week. "This is a long documentary that deals with events throughout the 18-day uprising in Egypt last year," said Shalaby, "with special attention paid to the term 'foreign agenda' that spread across Egypt and is always used by politicians, along with accusations against the youth who launched the revolution... The state media back then tried to persuade the public that the young people on the streets followed external agendas to disrupt Egypt and Mubarak." Attending the screening was the Egyptian ambassador to Ethiopia Mohamed Fathi Driss, who praised Egypt's contribution to the festival, saying,"Egyptian participation at the festival is important and reflects the cinematic art of Egypt and the true face of the Egyptian revolution." Driss stressed that "it is such cross-cultural exchanges that solidify relations across nations and art is the crucial component that the Egyptian embassy is keen to strengthen." In addition to The Agenda and I, Addis Ababa also featured two other films that focused on the Egyptian Revolution, including the documentary film 18 days in Egypt, directed by Ahmed Salahand Ramadan Salah, and Scenes of the Revolution, directed by the Frenchman Sebastaan Sugis. Both capture the revolution from its inception until the departureof President Hosni Mubarak in their own way and reflect the diversity of Egyptian society. The Addis Ababa Documentary Film Festival 2012 took place from 1 to 6 May 2012.