Joseph Fahim

Egypt, Nowhere

Critic and Programmer Freelance at Rotten Tomatoes

I do a whole bunch of things in cinema as my overlong futile search for home drags on.

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Articles

“It might set a trend”: George Lucas on Star Wars

3 weeks ago | bfi.org.uk | Philip Strick |Brogan Morris |Joseph Fahim |Ros Cranston

Before it became a decades-spanning franchise, Philip Strick visited the set of Star Wars and spoke with the crew, including George Lucas. From our Summer 1976 issue. 5 June 2025The BFI Film on Film festival, which runs from 12 to 15 June at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX, will open with a screening of Star Wars (1977) from an original unfaded dye transfer IB Technicolor British release print.
Finest hours: Tony Curtis in The Boston Strangler

3 weeks ago | bfi.org.uk | Brogan Morris |Joseph Fahim |Ros Cranston |Ivie Uzebu

In one of his final interviews before his death in 2010, Tony Curtis admitted that he had in his day “wanted to be taken seriously as an actor”. This, frankly, wasn’t always evident from the films.
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina obituary: the first Arab and African director to win Cannes’ Palme d’Or

3 weeks ago | bfi.org.uk | Joseph Fahim |Ros Cranston |Ivie Uzebu |Joseph Fahim Obituaries

Destiny works in mysterious ways. The iconic Algerian filmmaker Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina died at the age of 91 on 25 May, the day after Cannes celebrated the 50th anniversary of his masterwork Chronicle of the Years of Fire, the sole Arab and African film to win the Palme d’Or. Confining Lakhdar-Hamina’s legacy to that Palme d’Or win would be gravely reductive.
The good Arab immigrant: Ramy Youssef hits his stride with #1 Happy Family USA

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Joseph Fahim

In 2025, actor and comedian Ramy Youssef could very well be the most famous Egyptian celebrity in the US. The writer-director-producer has attracted legions of fans, including Taylor Swift, thanks to his affable demeanour and sharp observations on the everyday struggles of Arab-Americans in the US. Youssef was definitely not the first Arab-American comedian to find fame in popular culture.
'The Encampments' vs 'October 8': A battle of narratives on Palestine plays out in cinema

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Joseph Fahim |Peter Oborne

This article was initially set out to focus on The Encampments, Kei Pritsker and Michael T. Workman’s impassioned documentary that chronicles the Columbia University student movement that shook the US and captured imaginations the world over. But then it came to my attention that a sparring film has been released around in the same timeframe, offering a staunchly pro-Israeli counter-narrative that vehemently attempts to discredit the account offered by The Encampment.
Remembering Ahmed Adaweyah: The mutinous voice of Egypt’s working class

1 month ago | defenddemocracy.press | Joseph Fahim

By Joseph FahimFebruary14, 2025When was the first time I heard Adaweyah? As a child of the 1980s, it’s impossible to put a finger on the exact date. The music of Egypt’s greatest shaabi singer was as ubiquitous as television: it was everywhere, for everyone, at all times. It was catchy, unwieldy, and uncommon: unbridled in its sexuality, in its weariness of a changing Cairo, in its defiance to the bourgeois norms of good taste.
Sisi's failing vision? What the 2025 Ramadan season taught us about the Arab TV landscape

2 months ago | middleeasteye.net | Joseph Fahim

Once a vehicle for Egyptian soft power, Cairo is struggling to exert its influence through its shows Underneath the Seventh Earth is a Syrian thriller about a rogue cop's involvement in the criminal underworld (Cedars Art Production) 15 April 2025 10:52 BST ago The 2025 Ramadan TV season continues to dominate cultural discourse in the Arab World even after the end of the Muslim holy month, which doubles as the premiere season for blockbuster shows in the region.
Progressive except for Palestine: Berlinale 2025 and the politics of omission

Mar 10, 2025 | middleeasteye.net | Joseph Fahim

The 2024 Berlinale was the most memorable edition in the film festival’s recent history for all the wrong reasons. The initial outcry over the opening ceremony invitation for the far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AFD) gave way to protests over Germany’s complicity in the war on Gaza.
5 things to watch this weekend - 28 February to 2 March

Mar 1, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Sam Wigley |Richard Pickard |Mike Sutton |Joseph Fahim

Where’s it on? Blu-rayHere is a 1980s romcom to rank alongside Moonstruck (1987) or When Harry Met Sally (1989). Brimming with life and humour, Crossing Delancey is Joan Micklin Silver’s tale of a thirtysomething Jewish New Yorker (Amy Irving) who falls for an attractive author (Jeroen Krabbé) at the bookstore where she works. Meanwhile, her mother – keen to marry her off – sets her up on a date with a pickle salesman on the Lower East Side (Local Hero’s Peter Riegert).
Before Demi: every lead actress who has ever been nominated for a horror film

Feb 27, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Richard Pickard Lists |Richard Pickard |Mike Sutton |Joseph Fahim

Despite being one of the most popular genres with movie lovers, horror films have long struggled to make headway with the Academy. A visceral genre that ignites the senses, its best offerings hold up a mirror to the social order, yet scary movies are still largely overlooked in favour of the more palatable dramas and biopics which remain the ceremony’s bread and butter.