The Virgin, the Copts and Me | |
---|---|
Directed by | Namir Abdel Messeeh |
Written by | Namir Abdel Messeeh, Nathalie Najem, Anne Paschetta |
Screenplay by | Namir Abdel Messeeh, Nathalie Najem, Anne Paschetta |
Produced by | Centre National de la Cinématographie, Doha Film Institute, Maison de l'Image Basse-Normandie, Oweda Films |
Starring | Namir Abdel Messeeh, Siham Abdel Messeeh, |
Cinematography | Nicolas Duchêne |
Edited by | Sebastien De Sainte Croix, Isabelle Manquillet |
Music by | Vincent Segal |
Distributed by | Doc & Film International, Sophie Dulac Distribution (France) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
Countries | Egypt France Qatar |
Languages | Arab, French |
The Virgin, the Copts and Me is a 2011 documentary film directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh.
Namir is Egyptian, a Copt and now lives in France. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] When there is a family reunion, he buys an old video cassette recorded many years earlier at a religious holiday in his home village, when his mother said she had had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. [1] [2] [3] [6] [7] Namir realizes he has in his hands a very interesting subject for a documentary: he convinces his producer that it is a good idea and sets off on a journey that takes him back to his origins and puts his profession as a director to the test. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] However, he has not reckoned with his mother, the real protagonist of the story. [1] [2] [3] [7] [8] Eventually, in her hometown, they recreate an apparition with the help of the other villagers. [1] [2] [7]
The Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt, servicing Africa and the Middle East. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the Pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark, who also carries the title of Father of fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Ecumenical Judge and the thirteenth among the Apostles. The See of Alexandria is titular, and today the Coptic Pope presides from Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District in Cairo. The church follows the Coptic Rite for its liturgy, prayer and devotional patrimony. With approximately 25 million members worldwide, it is the country's largest Christian denomination.
Pope Shenouda III was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. His papacy lasted 40 years, 4 months, and 4 days from 14 November 1971 until his death.
Copts are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are Coptic Orthodox Christians. They are the largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Sudan and Libya. Copts have historically spoken the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian that was spoken in late antiquity.
Our Lady of Zeitoun, also known simply as El-Zeitoun, Zeitun or rarely Our Lady of Light, was a mass Marian apparition that was reported to have occurred in the Zeitoun district of Cairo, Egypt, over a period of 2–3 years beginning on 2 April 1968.
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam. Although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. The country is majority Sunni Muslim, with the next largest religious group being Coptic Orthodox Christians. exact numbers are subject to controversy, with Christians alleging that they have been systemically under-counted in existing censuses.
Christianity is the second largest religion in Egypt. The history of Egyptian Christianity dates to the Roman era as Alexandria was an early center of Christianity.
Egyptian Australians are Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents of Egyptian descent. According to the Australian 2011 Census, 36,532 Australian citizens and permanent residents declared that they were born in Egypt, while based on the 2006 Census, at least an additional 31,786 declared that they were of full or partial Egyptian ancestry and born in a country other than Egypt. The 2006 Census shows that the majority of Egypt-born Australians are located in Sydney (16,238) or Melbourne (11,156), with smaller communities located in Perth (1,407), Adelaide (982) and Brisbane (897).
Arab Australians refers to Australian citizens or residents with ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa, regardless of their ethnic origins. The majority are not ethnically Arab but numerous groups who include Arabs, Kurds, Copts, Druze, Maronites, Assyrians, Berbers, Turkmens and others. The majority are Christian by faith with minorities being Muslim, Druze, Yazidi and other faiths.
The Islamization of Egypt occurred as a result of the Muslim conquest of Egypt by the Arabs led by the prominent Muslim general Amr ibn al-Aas, the military governor of the Holy Land. The masses of locals in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East underwent a large scale gradual conversion from Christianity to Islam, accompanied by jizya for those who refused to convert. This is attested to by John of Nikiû, a coptic bishop who wrote about the conquest, and who was a near contemporary of the events he described. The process of Islamization was accompanied by a simultaneous wave of Arabization. These factors resulted in Islam becoming the dominant faith in Egypt between 10th and 12th century, Egyptians acculturating into an Islamic identity and then replacing Coptic and Greek languages, which were spoken as a result of the Greek and Roman occupation of Egypt, with Arabic as their sole vernacular which became the language of the nation by law.
Marina of the Zabbaleen is a 2008 documentary film written and directed by Engi Wassef that examines the life of Marina, a 7-year-old Egyptian girl living in a Zabbaleen garbage-collecting village in Cairo. The film debuted at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival with sold-out screenings. The film piqued the interest of many movie goers with its poignant tagline, "Garbage and God are the only options: plight of Christians peasants in Cairo."
The Coptic diaspora consists of Copts who live outside of their primary area of residence within parts of present-day Egypt, Libya and Sudan.
The 2011 Imbaba church attacks were a series of attacks that took place in Egypt on 7 May 2011 against Coptic Christian churches in the poor working-class neighborhood of Imbaba in Giza, near Cairo. The attacks were blamed on Salafi Muslims, and the attacks began when the Muslims attacked the Coptic Orthodox church of Saint Mina, where they alleged a Christian woman was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam. The attacks resulted in the burning of 3 Coptic Orthodox churches, and the destruction of many Christian-owned houses and businesses. In addition, 15 people were killed in the attacks, and about 232 injured. Among those killed were four Christians and six Muslims, while two other bodies were still unidentified. Imbaba has been known to be a stronghold of Muslim fundamentalists since the 1970s, but also comprises a significant number of Coptic Christians.
Teta, Alf Marra is a documentary film about a feisty Beiruti grandmother.
The Cordoba African Film Festival celebrated its ninth edition during 13–20 October 2012. The earlier eight editions were held in Tarifa. The ninth edition was hosted at Cordoba, a municipality located in Andalusia, Spain. The festival held over eight days was dedicated to cinema from 28 African and Middle East countries.
The Arab Film Festival (AFF) is the flagship program of the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) a nonprofit organization that hosts the largest and longest-running independent Arab film festival in the United States. It is held in California each year in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, and Berkeley.
Till Schauder, is a German-born American filmmaker, film director, screenplay writer, film producer, actor and film instructor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and co-producer, Sara Nodjoumi.
Copts in Egypt refers to Coptic people born in or residing in Egypt.
Copts in Sudan may refer to people born in or residing in Sudan of full or partial Coptic origin.
Coptic Australians are Australians of Coptic descent or persons of Coptic descent residing in Australia. According to the 2011 census, there were 24,693 Copts in Australia, mostly members of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic population within Australia is estimated to be between 70,000 and 100,000 people.