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Hussein Fahmy insists the Cairo International Film Festival go on.

As the Cairo International Film Festival prepared to celebrate world cinema and its own 25th anniversary last month, a cloud of global anxiety threatened to spoil the party. Fears about terrorism and military retaliation prompted last-minute cancellations, leaving the festival with significantly fewer foreign journalists and zero Hollywood stars.

During the last frantic days of preparations, Hussein Fahmy, the famed Egyptian actor who became the festival's president and leading advocate in 1998, hosted a press conference at the Royal Meridien Cairo's new high-rise annex. His patented radiant smile was missing.

The actor, who had made it a personal cause to elevate the festival's prestige, looked deflated. Last year, they'd landed Sophia Loren. This year, the Silver Jubilee year, stars were lacking. Warren Beatty and Shirley Maclaine sent regrets. U.S. director Cameron Crowe wasn't coming, even though the festival had selected his unchallenging Almost Famous to compete for the Golden Pyramid. Then September 11 happened. The world was wondering who would strike next, terrorists or U.S. warplanes, and where. Marquee guests Kate Winslet and Jeremy Irons cancelled their trip. So did a dozen Los Angeles-based foreign critics. But, Fahmy said, at least Danny Glover had reaffirmed that he was coming.

"That's [at] this very moment. I'm talking about today. I don't know what can happen tomorrow," Fahmy told reporters prophetically. "We don't know if there are other things that will happen. But today, and until this very moment, this is the situation."

Fahmy was in midsentence when a siren wail pierced the conference room and a coarse, mechanical announcement came from the MeridienTower's public address speakers: "ATTENTION! ATTENTION! An emergency has been reported for this floor. All occupants: Go to the nearest exist and await further instructions."

Reporters -- who still had vestigial images of the burning World Trade Center and Pentagon in their heads -- did not have to be told twice. They stood up and turned to leave -- but the doorman waved them back. It was only a test of the speaker system.

"That's all we needed," Fahmy joked as the tension dissipated. After the press conference, Fahmy talked about how the global climate might affect the festival. He let his guard down for a moment. "I'm trying to pretend that it hasn't changed our mood," he said, smiling.

But by the time the festival opened, the gloom disappeared. The gala opening-night ceremony filled the Opera House with confetti, computer graphics and fabulously dressed luminaries of the Arab movie business. And the foreign drop-off was unnoticed by Cairene filmgoers. For the next 11 days, area screens carried a diverse slate of films that gave particular respect to rising filmmakers from Iran, Egypt and the Far East.

Fahmy personified the determination to make the most of Cairo's date in the spotlight of international film. American Danny Glover backed out two days before opening night. Fahmy used his star power star to get a substitute co-host: He phoned Egyptian superstar Youssra. The glamorous star of Fa-tah Tabhath an El-Hob (A Girl Looking for Love) and Ebtessa Wahida Takfi (One Smile Is Not Enough) was in heavy rehearsals for an upcoming role, but she was persuaded by Fahmy's personal appeal. "He said he needed his friends here," Youssra says. "They worked on the event for one whole year. They can't just end it in 48 hours. They had to have it."

Fahmy says the organizers never seriously considered any course but sticking with the schedule. While the L.A. critics' absence would deprive the event of publicity, he said film festivals can survive without critics, without big stars. "We had the films. The jury has arrived -- they are all here. We have the theaters," Fahmy said in a sober opening speech. "There was no reason for us to postpone our festival."

In his speech, Fahmy expressed sorrow for the 6,000 deaths in the September 11 jetliner attacks. Glover sent a videotaped message that included a poignant plea for peace. Then, the focus returned to an appreciation of movies, and the audience's approval was apparent.

Granted, for some lucky enough to snag a ticket to the gala, "cinematic appreciation" meant gawking at movie stars in the foyer or at the Meridien Tower party afterward. And at the festival's screenings, it's presumed that many attendees primarily appreciate the chance to see films that are exempt from Egyptian government censors.

But on the stage at the Opera House, the virtuous side of cinematic appreciation was emphasized -- the talent of creators who make films well, the enrichment for people who watch them. The ceremony paid tribute to 74-year-old director Tawfik Saleh, whose 1955 debut was an adaptation of the Naguib Mahfouz novel Fool's Alley, and whose 1972 film Al Makhdu'un (The Dupes), in which three Palestinian refugees try to enter Kuwait hidden in the tank of a truck, was one of the first to broach the Palestinian issue.

A tribute was dedicated to Abbas Kiarostami, who in 1997 became the first Iranian director to win the top prize at Cannes, for Ta'am e Gilas (A Taste of Cherry). In turn, Kiarostami lent his prestige to the Cairo festival by doubling as president of the jury that awards the Golden Pyramid. Kiarostami's films often have a simplicity and contemplative quality that honors the value of everyday existence. Yet he plays complicated games with fact and fiction: Zire Darakhatan Zeitun (Through the Olive Trees, 1994), portrays a director who seeks actors for a movie (much like one that Kiarostami actually made) but becomes more interested in the actors' real lives.

Reaffirming the rise of Iran's cinema, the Cairo festival put 11 films from the country on its schedule. Attendees had a chance to see three films from new Chinese directors, and five by directors born in Egypt who moved to Greece.

Two other directors received tributes: Jean-Paul Rappeneau of France (Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu) and Mauro Bolognini of Italy (1991's steamy Husbands and Lovers), who died May 14. And, as the Opera House screen showed clips of Fayrouz -- Egypt's singing and dancing answer to Shirley Temple in the 1950s -- the real-life, grownup version rose from below the stage on a mechanical riser. That's when Opera House crew members released a shower of silver confetti from the balconies. The reclusive former child star gave brief thanks for the tribute, leaving the theater before reporters could interview her.

Attendees could watch the inaugural film -- the charming, wilfully unrealistic Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet of France, which Miramax is pushing for English audiences as Amelie from Montmartre -- or go right to the party. Then came 11 days to choose among 167 films from 44 countries at nine theaters.

Cairo was hardly the only film festival affected by the turn of world events, according to the Web site FilmFestivals.com. San Sebastian, Spain, saw sharply reduced foreign participation, while a festival scheduled for late October in Suez was called off because of cancellations. When the passenger jets hit the World Trade Center, Toronto's festival was under way, 600 km to the northeast. Organizers postponed screenings and cancelled all additional events, even sending for trauma counselors to comfort attendees. Three film events around New York State were postponed or cancelled. But New York City's opened on schedule. "We felt we had a duty to carry on in the spirit of the best of New York," program director Richard Pena told the Web site.

Then again, Cairo festival observers recalled that last year's event was also overshadowed by political violence: the renewal of the Palestinian uprising. A plea for peace worked its way into the opening night montage.

Perhaps turmoil outside the theater makes it even more important to roll the film. Glover suggested so in his videotaped message, in a sentiment that clashed with the name of the movies that made him megafamous, Lethal Weapon. "By learning about each other, we can break down the barrier of ignorance. Film is an excellent vehicle to do this," Glover said. "I encourage my fellow artists to continue finding ways to collaborate our talents and skills to bring about the vision of peace, tolerance and understanding throughout the world." *

Dan Bernard

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