Ghazeia danseuse d'Egypte

1993 , 50′ , couleur , documentaireRéalisation : Safaa Fathy. Production : Gloria films production, Docstar, Selena audiovisuel. Participation : Canal +, CNC, Procirep.

Ghazeia paints the portrait of two Egyptian women, social opposites, but both victims of the general stigmatisation and hypocrisy: Lucy is the most famous belly dancer in Cairo, while Sabah dances in the country and performs at weddings and baptisms with her husband.

Dance or the hard apprenticeship of freedom and the emancipation from the eyes of men. Dance or the free exercise of seduction, without possible medium of exchange: neither conjugal nor commercial. Finally, dance or the sublimed expression of femininity, without impediment or restraint. Although aware of the uniqueness of their status and their consequent isolation, Lucy and Sabah are not prepared to give up their sole ally: the act of dancing. It is as though the rigours of Islam and the rigidity of North African traditions had been invented so that this belly dance, formerly reserved for women “of ill-repute” could deploy itself, undulating and provocative.

Source : Fabienne Arvers