Lecture Performance & screening by Amr Kamal (Cairo/New York)
The Egyptian-born Franco-Italian singer Dalida is renowned worldwide for her top-selling musical records. But in Egypt, she was a national symbol. Before emerging on the French stage, Dalida made her debut in Egyptian cinema. In 1986, Dalida returned to her birthplace to reflect on her past and star in the film The Sixth Day by Youssef Chahine. In this talk, we will follow Dalida’s journey from Egypt to France and back again to make her last film. Dalida is a figure of Egyptian nationhood and the diaspora. Her image reflects Egypt’s cosmopolitan and colonial past.
The presentation of this evening is conceived by Amr Kamal. He is Associate Professor of French and Arabic at City College New York and at the Graduate Center. Kamal’s research focuses on the literature and culture of the Arab world and the Mediterranean from the nineteenth century to the present. His recent research is titled, Iconography of Displacement: Deconstructing Colonial Imagery in Contemporary Mediterranean Cinema.
Amr Kamal is one the four grantee of the open call for arts organized by the Mahmoud Darwish Chair, Bozar, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Camargo Foundation and Mucem, with the support of Boghossian Foundation for Brussels residency.
Followed by Q&A , moderated by Nedjma Hadj Benchelabi