AfricAvenir will premiere the 2013 Abu Dhabi Film Festival Jury Prize Winner, Villa 69, in Namibia on 25 October, 19h00, at the Goethe-Centre in Windhoek.
Villa 69 is the first long narrative film by director Ayten Amin, starring Khaled Abu el-Naga and Arwa Gouda.
In the film, director Ayten Amin provides a new take on the old subject of a dying man taking stock of his life. Almost all the action takes place in a spare, well-designed villa beside the Nile where the main character – moody architect Hussein – has closed himself off from the world. The Nile itself is not gleaming with blue beauty, but is characterised by overgrown weeds and murky waters; a type of faded beauty.
Hussein lives a lonely life due to his strange ideas, but his life starts to change after the intervention of his sister and her grandson. Hussein is grumpy and set in his ways, but loves the company of women particularly his nurse who visits on a regular basis, and his girlfriend.
A testy contrarian of the old school unafraid to volunteer his opinion, Hussein is, deep down, a kind, perceptive aristocrat who’s seen his world slowly expire. Remaining in his home, he keeps crass outsiders at bay while hiding his illness from view, except from his visiting nurse. Soon after Hussein’s servant takes a leave of absence, his sister Nadra arrives and needs a place to stay as her own home is being repainted. Nadra has not come alone: she has her maid, driver, and her 18-year-old grandson in tow.
As his sister and her grandson turn Hussein’s life upside down, Hussein gets increasingly angry with those around him, but he also bonds with his sister’s grandson, Seif, which leads him to dwell on his own life.
Amin portrays the nature of familial relationships in Egypt with authenticity; the tension between Nadra and Hussein over their parents’ properties and the strained relationship that softens with the approach of death.
