NYS Writers Institute presents IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY film and discussion Friday, Sept. 14

ALBANY, NY (09/12/2018) (readMedia)-- EVENT DETAILS:

The NYS Writers Institute presents a film screening and discussion of IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY with writer/director Tamer El Said at 7 p.m.Friday, Sept. 14, at Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue on the University at Albany Downtown Campus. The event is free and open to the public. For more information,

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Albany, NY - Set in Cairo before and after the Arab Spring, the film IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY follows a fictional director, portrayed by Khalid Abdalla (THE KITE RUNNER), making a movie about the city he loves and hates. As he struggles with the creative process, he talks with Arab friends from Baghdad, Beirut and Berlin about how their home cities nourish and frustrate them.

The Village Voice called it "mesmerizingly beautiful," and the Museum of Modern Art called it, "a powerful, multilayered meditation on togetherness, the tactile hold of cities, and the meaning of homeland."

The NYS Writers Institute presents a film screening and discussion of IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY with writer/director Tamer El Said at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, at Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue on the University at Albany Downtown Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Tamer El Said is a leading documentary filmmaker, political activist, and key figure of Egypt's independent film industry. His film within a film is a haunting, lyrical chronicle of recent years in the Arab world, where revolutions seemed to spark hope for change and yield further instability in one stroke. Shot in 2008 and completed in 2016, the film explores the weight of cinematic images as record and storytelling in an ongoing time of change.

Since its world premiere, IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY has been praised by both international and Arab critics, and included on a number of lists of best films of the year, including the Critics Award of the Best Arab Film in 2016. Other awards picked up by the film include the Grand Prix of Festival des 3 Continents - Nantes in France; the Grand Prix of New Horizons International Film Festival in Poland; and Best Director Award at the prestigious Buenos Aires International Film festival (BAFICI) in Argentina, among others.

The New York Times called IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY "a film of beauty and skill," and the Los Angeles Times praised El Said's work: "A soulful, atmospheric travelogue that toggles between immersing in and removing itself from the chaotic beauty of teeming humanity, El Said's movie gives a humming, on-the-edge metropolis its heart-pumping, reflective due."

To view the official trailer, go to https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/18FallClassicFilmINTHELASTDAYSOFTHECITY.html and for more information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or at writers@albany.edu.

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