(From L) UAE Consul General Ahmad Mangoosh, businessman Abdullah Tayyeb and Egyptian Consul General Adel El-Alfy watching "X-Large" at the Francophone Week celebrations in Jeddah Tuesday night. — SG photo Samar Yahya Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Egyptian Consul General Adel El-Alfy held a reception ceremony as part of Francophone Week at his residence in Jeddah on Tuesday evening. The program included an Egyptian traditional food buffet and screening of Egyptian movie “X-Large”. Guests were consuls general of many Arab and non-Arab countries, especially Francophone countries, as well as Saudi and Egyptian culture and business personalities, among others. At the consulate's main hall, traditional Egyptian food and drinks, such as kushari, fateer and licorice and tamarind drinks, were offered to guests. X-Large, starring Ahmad Helmy, Donia Amir Ghanem and Emy Samir Ghanem, tells the story of Magdy, an obese cartoonist who is successful and talented and has a large number of female friends who all see him as a teddy bear. All Magdy wants is a woman who can see past his unsightly exterior and see him for who he is inside. He reconnects Facebook with Dina, a girl he used to know when he was a skinny kid, and they get to know each other over the phone without ever having seen any pictures of them. Dina, upon returning to Egypt, asked Magdy to pick her up from the airport, which he agrees to do while secretly praying that she doesn't turn out to be too conventionally attractive. When Magdy sees how beautiful Dina is, he instead introduces himself as Magdy's cousin Adel, informing her that Magdy had to travel abroad. With his friends' help, he proceeds to try and get her to love him as Adel, fat and all. The movie received best actor, actress, best script, best director and producer awards at the 33rd Egyptian Cinema Oscars. Guests had the opportunity to talk about Egyptian cuisine prior to the movie show and to discuss some comic scenes after the show. El-Alfy presented the movie with a short speech on Francophone Week. The term Francophone refers to people whose cultural background is primarily associated with French language, regardless of ethnic or geographical differences.
