Projects

We host a series of major research projects, funded by organisations including the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy.

Please see below for more information on a selection of major research projects in English Literature currently taking place or recently completed.

section of visit Palestine poster — Palestine in the Popular Imagination

Investigating how Palestine has been imagined in the public sphere in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

magnified dna strand — Double Helix history

This project thinks about the popular understanding of the work of DNA and, more particularly, how we might understand, represent, and visualise it.

Communist march in Ukraine — Wars of Position

This AHRC funded project takes a new look at Communism in the West.

Modern cemetery with Irish flag — My Country, A Journey

A research based drama on the migrant experience in Britain.

Lady Emmeline Courtenay, c. 1375 — Medieval Cloth and Clothing Lexis

This project investigated the complex relationships between vocabulary, artefact and image.

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Explore more English Literature and Creative Writing projects.

Alexandria, Again and Forever (Iskandarya Kaman Wa Kaman)

Catalogue Code

FILM000007

Synopsis

Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in Alexandria, Why? and An Egyptian Story. Obsessed with Amr, the handsome actor he discovered and cast as his alter-ego in parts one and two of The Alexandria Trilogy, Yehia pressures Amr to star in various film projects that change even as Yehia's perception of the young actor begins to change. He first casts Amr as Hamlet, which the actor deems too demanding for his talents, then as the lead in a musical biopic of demigod Alexander the Great, who founded the city of Alexandria in 332 B.C. As these projects fall through, Yehia becomes fascinated by Nadia, an outspoken actress and leader of the hunger strike. As Yehia's affections shift toward Nadia, he envisions her as Cleopatra, the famous Egyptian queen. Chahine expertly mixes biography with fantasy and fiction—along with whimsical dashes of fast-motion action, animation, and several dynamic musical numbers—to create a moving tribute to Egypt, to the art of cinema, and to his own enduring career

Year of Release

1989

Running Time

105 mins

Distributor

EIDR

Genre

Drama

Language

Arabic

Country of Origin

Egypt

Permalink

http://arabcinemadb.alc.manchester.ac.uk/Public/Film/Show/FILM000007

Notes

English Subtitles

People with a connection to this film

Video Clips

Copies in the collection

DVD ARA/FIL/0138

Last modified on 08/11/2013 11:36

Projects

Palestine in the Popular Imagination

Double Helix history

Wars of Position

My Country, A Journey

Medieval Cloth and Clothing Lexis

Discover more

Alexandria, Again and Forever (Iskandarya Kaman Wa Kaman)

People with a connection to this film

Video Clips

Copies in the collection

Record from the Contemporary Arab Cinema Database