Viral Visual: What Have We Done To Agamy!?

Not so long ago, summertime and clubbing had a different energy in Egypt. Agamy, The beach resort/town located half an hour away from Alexandria, was Egypt’s most precious summer destination.

The place where everything started long before the North Coast and Ain Sokhna emerged, you would be considered fortunate if the beach and the friends’ trips with insanely crowded sleepovers are part of your childhood memories.

A short visual poem surfaced this week weeping for the beach gem we once knew. The streets that were once nothing but filled with greenery and villas are now being invaded by ugly concrete atrocities. The poem is a cry for help that sheds light on the pressing issue, urging everyone to help save the beautiful coast.

This poem started as a conversation on Bianchi beach between director Hani Eskander and Mohamed El Tayef, a talented and witty contemporary poet from Sohag who wrote and delivered the tribute. The musical score and special effects were done by Ali Sedky.

Eskander, a passionate documentarian, previously worked as a first assistant director on big brand TV commercials as well as El Bernameg and Amreeka Bel Araby TV shows, and he produced last year’s Ramadan Galak.

Eskander has been residing in Agami almost full time since September 2014 and is also in the final stages of finishing the first cut of his short film, “Drifting Treasure”, which depicts the life of a surgeon, born and raised in Agami, who leaves his successful career behind to pursue his passion of hunting for driftwood and crafting furniture out of it.

Eskander told us, “Agami is a microcosm of what’s happening in Egypt. We cannot keep at this consistent and persistent trail of destruction and tasteless development and construction without having proper vision that translates to sustainable design, and this all cannot see the light of day without adequate implementation of law applied equally and fairly on all”. He plans on staying in Agami next to what remains of the beach, amongst its self-driven people who he can now call friends.

Eskander is also working on a feature-length documentary, interdependently produced by Shahir Maged, Ahmed Askalany and himself, about the rise and fall of Agamy over the years from the ’50s onwards, with a working title “Wa Agami”.

Not only does this touch on the issue of gems like Alexandria and Agamy being destroyed by the corrupt housing and development system in the country, but it also sheds light on the bigger picture. This is happening all over the country, from the Red Sea to places like Marsa Matrouh, Fayoum and other local gems.

As a nation, we should stand up and fight for whatever remaining natural beauty this country has left, before we destroy it all.

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