by Alex Deleon LUST (Al Shooq) is an Egyptian film set in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, on the Mediterranean. However the part of the city we see is no tourist dream -- but a poverty stricken warren of side streets where the central figure, Umm Shooq, a charismatic possessed lady, and her two mod daughters live. When her youngest son falls seriously ill with a kidney condition and needs dialysis treatment --very expensive -- she is forced to beg on the streets to raise the money. When she...

  I posted this article (below) back in October after having attended the screening of this documentary, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace (2009), at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2010. In light of the recent controversy in Egypt and impinging further contention, I feel that this film could not have been released at a better time, nor can it be more relevant. A fellow filmmaker and Cairo native stated this in regards to the situation as is today: "The difference betwee...

Today’s Iraq Provides Setting for Landmark Syria/UK Co-ProductionWriter/director Nabil Maleh’sTHE HUNT FEASTCurrently filming in Syria and Lebanon. To Be Unveiled At Cannes 2004The story of an escaped high-ranking officer of the former Iraqi regime on the run with millions of dollars earmarked for an insurgency campaign against the occupying American forces, is the subject of a landmark Syrian/UK co-production feature film currently shooting in Syria and Lebanon, which gets its first unveili...