City of Rice, 2010

The film mainly borrows its aesthetics from 1930s-1940s film noir and melodrama. Here, codes and conventions are reused and re-examined in an attempt to re-address the dynamic that allows for psychoanalytical reading between drives and motivations of the different characters. The era and genre also make a comment on the post-colonial bourgeoisie, where its presence was culturally ambiguous and its power play was clouded and estranged. The attempt here is to build a tension, through the craft of narrative film-making (with all its conventions in terms of the uses of cinematography, art direction and blocking), without succumbing to its tendency to gravitate towards an ultimate, humanistic meaning. "Desires float, suspend and frustrate themselves without generating any obvious emotional climax." (Sherif El-Azma)

Sherif El-Azma

1975, Manchester. Lives and works in Cairo. Sherif El-Azma is an experimental film-maker and video artist. In his works he uses the narrative strategies of cinema and media semiotics to re-question human experience. Since 1997, his work has been shown in major art institutions including the Gropius Bau museum in Berlin, Camden Art Centre in London, Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, Madre Museum in Naples, Italy and the National Film Theatre in London. El-Azma is currently working on projects that involve a more classical narrative film form.