By Ibrahim Shehata

“Wardal is placed in an amusement park carriage by Sherif El-Azma, and it is the very same carriage in which Wardal travelled with Fellini and even with Billy Wilder.”

It sounds like the beginning of a film. Of course it is—and of more than one film, and perhaps it is much more than that: it is Wardal’s story, updated to the very last second.

Seemingly unconnected pieces of news reveal a strong coherence, all sharing a sense of human redemption, of a constant search for freedom and truth.

The recent summit meeting with financier Chinh Chu at Trump World Tower in NYC gave rise to the film initiative “I, Cleopatra, Demand Peace,” in which history finally gains an image of the queen illuminated by the truth that time can restore.

There were also powerful expressions of historical truth during those days in NYC, with the screening of “Never Never Again” by Jenny Thai, who presented the film together with Emily Letran , author of the film “Book of Death,” blessed by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV and the Dalai Lama.

Having returned to California, Wardal continues filming “Al-Maza” by Sherif El-Azma, an art film that speaks to human beings about what it means to be human.

When the film is released in January, it is expected to have a global impact.

Wardal also continues filming “Sideshow Surrealism” by 23-year-old San Francisco film director Felix Milionis, a film that incisively uses the language of Generation Z, in which Wardal immerses himself completely.

The concept of an amusement park pervades all these initiatives, while the image of the final scene of Federico Fellini’s “8½” comes sharply into focus.

A scene that will never fade from memory, as a major figure in Italian cinema, Graziano Marraffa, president of the Italian Historical Cinema Archive, tells Wardal that he will take care of all the documentation of his long artistic career across the entire world.