The Virgin, the Copts and Me

2011 Egyptian film
  • 2011 (2011)
Running time
85 minutesCountriesEgypt
France
QatarLanguagesArab, French

The Virgin, the Copts and Me is a 2011 documentary film directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh.

Synopsis

Namir is Egyptian, a Copt, and now lives in France.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] When there is a family reunion, he buys an old video cassette recorded many years earlier at a religious holiday in his home village, when his mother said she had had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[1][2][3][6][7] Namir realizes he has in his hands a very interesting subject for a documentary: he convinces his producer that it is a good idea and sets off on a journey that takes him back to his origins and puts his profession as a director to the test.[1][2][3][4][5][7] However, he has not reckoned with his mother, the real protagonist of the story.[1][2][3][7][8] Eventually, in her hometown, they recreate an apparition with the help of the other villagers.[1][2][7]

Critical reception

  • Shown at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival,[1] the Festival Cinema Africano,[2] the 2012 EBS International Documentary Festival,[3] the 2012 Kraków Film Festival[5] and at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[1][2][3][5][7] It will be shown at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival.[4][9]
  • Variety drew a parallel between the Coptic minority in Egypt and the Egyptian minority in France, and they commended the editing.[10] For Slant Magazine, the staged apparition brings the film to a "satisfying climax".[7] The Huffington Post commended the director's decision to keep the footage filmed in 2010, prior to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.[9] For America, the "Coptic population" is "held together by a shared sense of self-abnegation and unwavering faith" and it is "faith that remains a rallying force for the Copts on the screen" despite their "victimized status as a religious minority".[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "The Virgin, the Copts and Me". Tribecafilm.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Festival Cinema Africano
  3. ^ a b c d e f EBS International Documentary Festival
  4. ^ a b c Sydney Film Festival
  5. ^ a b c d Kraków Film Festival Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ a b The San Francisco Chronicle
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Gerard Raymond, Tribeca Film Festival 2012: The Virgin, the Copts and Me, Slant Magazine, April 25th, 2012
  8. ^ African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival - Milan - 22nd edition (license CC BY-SA)
  9. ^ a b E. Nina Rothe, DFI Presents Groundbreaking: The Virgin, the Copts and Me at Tribeca, Huffington Post, 04/27/2012
  10. ^ Jay Weissberg, The Virgin, the Copts and Me, Variety, Nov. 8, 2011
  11. ^ Victor Stepien, Keeping the Faith, America, October 8, 2012

External links

  • The Virgin, the Copts and Me at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • Namir Abdel Messeeh's official blog
  • v
  • t
  • e
2010–present
  • Stolen (2010)
  • The Unbroken Spirit (2011)
  • The Virgin, the Copts and Me (2013)
  • The Supreme Price (2014)
  • Eighteam (2015)
  • Nowhere to Run (2016)
  • We Have Never Been Kids (2017)
  • Ramothopo the Centenarian (2018)
  • In Search (2019)
  • In God's Hands (2021)