Fellow FPA Blogger Sean Patrick Murphy recently drew my attention to an upcoming project by British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, which I thought readers of this blog would also find interesting. Murphy profiles Abdalla, who is best known for what some have to referred to as his ‘war on terror’ trilogy. In the past, Abdalla has played a hijacker in United 93, an Afghan immigrant in The Kite Runner, and currently is playing a conflicted Iraqi in Green Zone.
According to Murphy, “for his next project, the 30-year-old star is turning away from Hollywood and using the foothold he’s gained in the West to help produce and star in his first independent Arab film. ‘The failure of people to be able to understand things to do with the Middle East is in some ways a failure of the arts world,’ he says. So he’s decided to guide his career to change that.
Abdalla’s latest project is called In the Last Days of the City, and it sets out to capture the spirit of bohemian Cairo, Beirut, and Baghdad through the stories of a generation of young people trying to find their voice under the weight of authoritarian governments and the rise of religious fundamentalism.
‘Abdalla says it’s pretty hard to jump into a taxi or walk down a Cairo street without thinking: ‘I wish I had a camera with me.’ The film would be shot on the streets of the city by a crew drawn from Lebanon, Iraq, and Britain.”
Read Murphy’s original post here: http://globalfilm.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/03/23/an-independent-arab-film-in-the-works/
Also check out his blog, Global Film Review
*Photo Credit: VH1
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