Blog - Notes From Over There

7/12/24 Ismail Fayed

All of Us Strangers & Tragedy Porn

A review of Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers and looking at why contemporary queer cinema and film making still centers tragedy and loss as driving force behind gay stories, even when done beautifully.

9/7/23 Ismail Fayed

30 Years of Queerness or On appreciating Interview with a Vampire

Revisiting Interview with a Vampire, and how a heterosexual man made one of the most sensitive and interesting queer stories in cinema, thirty years on.

8/3/23 Ismail Fayed

A24 & the Spectacle of the oppressed black body

A24 queer films have been hailed as breakthrough in queer black cinema but they also have can be seen denying black bodies notions of pleasure and joy in favor of depicting "oppression" and "struggle".

7/28/23 Ismail Fayed

Cicadas or the sound of freudian inversion

An exploration of sound, psychoanalysis, and queer identity through cinema.

6/26/23 Ismail Fayed

Great Freedom, great misery

A critical examination of Sebastian Meise's film about post-war Germany and queer persecution.

8/17/20 Ismail Fayed

Death in Egypt

Reflections on death and suicide in Egypt. Part of the conversations on how to talk about death, that were developed during the course, "How do we talk about death", at the Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences.

7/8/20 Ismail Fayed

The Long Way Back: An Epic of Tragic Insights

A review of Fouad al-Tikerli's The Long Way Back (1980)

6/21/20 Ismail Fayed

al-Rubaie's Tattoo or Post-revolutionary Melancholy

A review of Abdel Rahman Majeed al-Rubaie's novella al-washm or the tattoo

6/17/20 Ismail Fayed

al-Majus or through the Labyrinth

A review of Ibrahim al-Koni epic novel al-Majus as part of #100ArabNovels series

5/31/20 Ismail Fayed

What Messadi's Abu Hurairah Didn't Say

Review of Mahmoud Messadi's Abu Hurairah Said (1973)

5/24/20 Ismail Fayed

Rama and the Dragon: An Avatar too Short of the Truth

A review of Edwar al-Kharrat's Rama and the Dragon (2002)

5/17/20 Ismail Fayed

Too Desolate for Words: Reading Haidar Haidar's Desolate Time

A review of Haidar Haidar's Desolate Time (1973)

5/10/20 Ismail Fayed

Maqamat with a Spin: Emile Habiby's The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist

A review, of Emile Habibi's second novel Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-gharībah fī 'khtifāʾ Saʿīd Abī 'l-Naḥsh al-Mutashāʾil or The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimst (1974)

4/26/20 Ismail Fayed

The Searing Sun: Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun

A review of Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun (1960)

4/19/20 Ismail Fayed

All is not Fair in War: Yusuf al-Qa'id's War in the Land of Egypt

A review of Yusuf al-Qa'id's War in the Land of Egypt (1978)

4/12/20 Ismail Fayed

An Autobiography in Disguise: Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's Searching for Walid Masoud

A review of Jabra Ibarhim Jabra's In Search of Walid Massoud

4/8/20 Ismail Fayed

Ghassan Kanafani: To Fayza

This is a translation of one of the letters that Palestinian author and freedom fighter, Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), exchanged with Ghada al-Samman.

10/8/19 Ismail Fayed

On laughing at the horrors of capitalism

A critical analysis of the Joker film and its relationship to contemporary capitalism.

9/22/19 Ismail Fayed

Reflections on Love and Heteronormativity

Reflections on notions of love in the LGBT+ community in Egypt and what it means to frame such relationships in a context inimical to it.

8/10/18 Ismail Fayed

عن برلين

Reflections on Berlin in Arabic.