A few days ago, the Luxor African Film Festival announced that the artist, Liqaa Al-Khamisi, had joined the jury of the Diaspora competition in its 12th session, and the film producer Pedro Pimenta from Mozambique, and the great Lebanese critic and historian Ibrahim Al-Aris, participated in the committee, to announce her happiness with this choice and her presence among the stature of filmmakers. Through her dialogue with Al-Arabiya.net, she also expressed her love for theater and her love for new experiences that she always seeks to search for, her ability to follow and comment on what is happening around her in the world through her social networking sites, and her means of dealing with case variables around it.
* It has been announced that you have joined the jury at the Luxor African Film Festival.. How do you see that?
** I was pleased to participate in this festival, which is concerned with cinema in the brown continent, to consolidate the relationship with our neighbors and those around us, and to get acquainted with other cinemas, as we need that. A task that we need to see for cultural communication and to know what we have not reached so far, and with work on a jury, it will be contact with different cultures for the members of the jury, and another vision for watching films.
Thursday meeting
* Do you attend festivals in general?
**I do not always attend all events in general, but when I have the opportunity and I am ready to attend, I do so. Mostly, I am either outside Egypt or psychologically not ready to attend festivals.
* And what do you aspire to present on the screen after your participation in the activities of these festivals?
** I always aspire to add to the world. The world has recently suffered from injustice, hatred and aggression, and people in general have changed their dreams as a result of the pressures of life and what is happening in societies, and therefore I prefer to present comedies that make the audience happy, cheerful and relieve it. I also seek to present works that change society, whether women’s or children’s issues, as there are many topics that are presented smoothly and change the world for the better.
* Despite your love for cinema, you deeply sanctify the theater.. right?
** The theater represents life for me, and as soon as I step on it, I feel as if I am practicing the rituals of prayer. Everyone around me knows that since I appear on stage I listen to music, close the door on me, say hello to everything in it, and dance. The truth is that as I grow older and gain experience in life, a lot of things change inside me, as I enter a stage of maturity and human weight.
Al-Khamisi’s meeting with her husband, Mohamed Abdel Monsef
* Did you expect your last honor at the Cairo International Monodrama Festival?
** I did not expect to be honored with this award, but it came at the right time, because I have been thinking for some time about returning to the theater, because it is my true home and my true beginning, and I felt very happy for this honor. Theater is my destination, and I have been working on it since I was 5 years old, and I was with my father in the theater in the United Arab Emirates, acting, dancing and performing shows. After that, I returned to Egypt and joined the acting troupe at the Faculty of Commerce and then the Institute of Dramatic Arts, and therefore a large part of my life I spent in theater, and it was the source of positive energy for me, because for me it was like a temple and a place that I always and forever made sure that there would be a close relationship between me and him.
How did this award affect you?
**Everything comes in its time, and God always brings things in the right timing for our lives. It is possible that I need this honor because I have a great longing to present a musical theater work on stage, and therefore this is the right time for me to make this award a catalyst for what I think.
* You have a state of communication and comment on what is happening in our society and the like.. Aren’t you afraid of being attacked?
**I am part of society and I have the right to express my opinion, and therefore I comment on any incidents that occur in our surroundings, as they put everyone in a state of fear, and therefore I had to say my opinion and I will not be afraid of being attacked. We are in a civilized country, and anyone has the right to express his opinion as long as you do not violate the humanitarian rules, just as there is no person who does not suffer from education these days, especially with the state of openness to the outside world in which we live through social media, because at the time of our education there was no This technology is currently available, and children are increasingly aware of different opinions, but in the end, a person does what is necessary to produce a conscious generation that respects the rights of others and respects the law. Praise be to God, I am making a great effort to bring up my children who are psychologically normal.
* One of your talents is singing.. What do you think about what is happening in the music scene, preventing some from singing recently?
** In fact, I did not know who was prevented from singing, but singing is an art, and if there is humor, it is not desirable to listen to humor. . Thus, there are attempts to legalize what is presented, because there is no ban on art, and it is assumed that art basically changes for the better, whether it is rap, popular, or something else. But there has to be some sort of ‘taste’ for the art being presented and a consideration of where we go to people.