Yamustafa!

“Build it, we will that of which we dream day after day after day... in where there is a bastille let a hospital prevail let a bird not a gunshot fly over a fountain in the merriest of play with kids in kindergarten..” On The First Sudan Independent Film Festival A Hundred Years of Viewing in My Country In his memoirs My Life in Cinema , the late filmmaker Jadallah Jubara , tells a story that happened while they were screening a movie on a coarse piece of cloth by the river bank in a remote village. While people squatted on the sand fascinated by this piece of cloth that had on it live pictures and sound, came this villager from behind and saw a roaring lion heading toward him. With all his might, the man threw his seasoned spear piercing the 'screen' and causing the onlookers to flee both from the lion and the unaccounted for attack by a spear. They were as if wondering, a roaring line and a spear coming out of that piece of cloth! In a matte...

Short Story by Ali Elmak* Translated by MM Getting off the tram, he slipped. Was it the right or the left foot that skidded? It did not matter!  All that mattered really, all that he cared for at that hour, at that moment, was that he fell and soiled his pants. those characteristically beautiful white pants which he had preserved for Thursday evenings; for the soiree gatherings which started by hanging around in the market; loitering for short or long periods; then to the cinema house; any film and peace be upon him. Then, was this bad luck or what? Did he really need to take the tram for such a short distance? “That was a fair reward for your laziness” he said to himself. As for those pants, they were turned into a dusty colored thing. The more he shook those tiny particles off, the closer they became attached to the pants. Oh what a gloomy evening for you!  "Is this what concerned you?" thought he. The posters of Alan Ladd and Van Heflin ...