How often does a film-maker find a subject standing in an opportune ray of light? I came across this man standing in the doorway of his blacksmith shop in the back streets of Marrakesh while filming the documentary Arabs: A Lost Identity.
EVER HAD A LAWRENCE OF ARABIA MOMENT?
On my very second outing as a fully fledged documentary director I was let loose on an unsuspecting Arab world. First port of call Wadi Rum. What most of you don't know is that I grew up in a house in London where the film director David Lean had lunch every Sunday.
What to do when you can’t find the perfect location…
MAD DOGS AND ENGLISH MEN…
Ok, I think that definitely my choice of themes for the this site is getting the better of me. You have to understand that my choice was based on a) all blogs look the same and I wanted one which looks different and b) what would look good on an iPad and mobile devices. The …
Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot by Guy Magar – Review
BOOK REVIEW BY MM The autobiography ‘Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot’ by Guy Magar is the story of how the son of Egyptian immigrants fleeing from Abdel Nasser’s 1958 Egyptian revolution became a mainstream jobbing director in Hollywood. By way of Egypt, France and the US Guy Magar’s story relates his journey from immigrant …
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BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY NINETEEN
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 19 I bought a statue today. Yes you heard me right folks a statue. A big one. Couldn’t help myself, none of the other therapies were working so I thought a little retail therapy might help. It did – until I got the bill. Then I had a heart attack.
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY SIXTEEN
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 16 AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES What a day today has been. Limped up stairs at the crack of dawn to see the lovely Helga for weighing-in and blood pressure. While waiting, I was sitting next to a rather elegant woman reading a whodunit. We started to chat, I told her about my problem and …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY ELEVEN
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 11 FASTING FOR PROTEST I heard yesterday that an Indian politician fasted for one day in protest of the corruption in the Indian government. FASTED FOR ONE DAY – sorry I can’t help shouting – THE WIMP. After nine days of fasting, let me tell you a one day fast ain’t going …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY NINE
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 9 LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI I've been thinking about sloth, greed and pain these past couple of days and what part they have played in my life. These internal musings came about as I was having my feet massaged by Mrs H - a giant German reflexologist. Mrs H pinned me with …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY SEVEN
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 7 It’s official I am losing my mind. Sunday morning and the sun is shining, Annie Lennox is singing about ‘diving into your ocean and talking like lover’s do’ and long, tall Stephanie is looming over me, asking me to hold it in, while holding a warm water bag at the right …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY FIVE
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 5 The weather brightened up today with sail boats gliding on a peaceful lake. It is not easy to face the whys, ifs, buts, probablys, maybes, wishes, dreams, fantasies and realities of one’s life on an empty stomach with the sun shining. Day three and four at Buchinger were a garbled mess. …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY TWO
BUCHINGER DIARIES DAY 2 Woke up this morning and took hot steaming cup of pee to the lovely Helga. ‘Aaaah Zzzooo Mrs Moooounayerrrrrr, ve zlip aulright’ crooned the lovely Helga. ‘Noooo veee did not zplip aulright. Ve tossed und turned all night long’ I replied. ‘AAAAAAA vell, you vill zlip better tonight’. End of conversation. …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY FOURTEEN
BUCHINGER DIARIES - DAY 14 The sun shone down on a green and pleasant land as my taxi driver, Reiner and I drove around a blue blue lake ringed by distant blue blue peaks. Destination, Lindau, a medieval walled town nestled on a small pedestrian-only island. Fluffy clouds ringed the lake and for a moment an …
BUCHINGER DIARIES – DAY ONE
INTRODUCTION In late spring 2011 I spent three weeks at the Buchinger Klinik in Southern Germany. I went primarily to lose weight and get therapeutic treatments for the herniated disk in my back which my doctors wanted to treat conservatively. It was a little scary going alone when I couldn't walk very well because of …
The Face Of Egypt
While walking through crowds coming out from Friday prayer in Cairo a few years ago, my cameraman and I spotted this beauty playing with her son and pointing and smiling at us. In person she was breath-taking with eyes the colour of dark moss. Finding such a face in the crowd are some of my …
MAD DOGS AND ENGLISH MEN…
I am neither a mad dog nor a man and only half English at that but sometimes I feel like I have tarried too long in the midday sun. Beirut in the midday sun in July is hot, humid and divine - if you're looking from a distance. Close up the city is awash with …
MOUNA MOUNAYER 
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