Sherif Salama: ’Faten Amal Harby’ sends several messages to men in order not to be like Seif El Dandrawy

Egyptian star Sherif Salama dazzled  us all after providing credible performance to Seif El Dandrawy character, this abusive husband and reckless father who stirred our anger in Faten Amal Harby series.

Egypt Today interviewed Salama about his recent work and how he views the impact of drama in general.

1-Tell us more about Seif El Dandrawy character in Faten Amal Harby series 

For me, Seif El Dandrawy is an extremely important role. Through Dandrawy we highlight how some husbands wrongly understand the real value of marriage. Seif is a selfish guy who only seeks to own his wife and to achieve this he deals cruelly with her and abuses her in every sense of the word. We tried through the series to shed the light on such kind of men who we see unfortunately a lot in our society, men who literally have totally wrong point of views pertaining to women.

2-What motivated you to embody such complicated character? 

Actually there are a number of factors that motivated me to embody Seif’s character the first is the director Mando El Adl. I have cooperated with Mando before, he is an extremely talented director who always seeks to present realistic issues and discusses vital societal problems. The second factor is El Adl Group which is a reputable production company that always presents high quality and distinguished productions that tackles crucial subjects. The third factor is the well-written script by acclaimed author and scriptwriter Ibrahim Eissa and finally working with a big star like Nelly Karim who is famous with her credible performance and profound Ramadan series.

3-In your real life did you meet someone like Seif el Dandrawy?

In general I don’t imitate real characters on screen, but sometimes I meet or know some who have the same mentality or have one or two of the personal traits of someone  

 like Seif so I gather all these details to help me embody the role but in general I don’t play the character  of someone I know on screen .     

4- Do you think social series are closer to people hearts because they convey their problems and sufferings?

This is certainly true, this was crystal clear after the release of of the series poster, the audience found it relatable and put a real picture of a woman in front of the family court similar to the picture of the poster, this reflects to what extent the series is realistic and conveys its ability to highlight an issue from the Egyptian society, and this exactly what attract the audience to social series because they witnessed situations in real life similar to those in the series.

5-Any social work is double-edged weapon, either it achieves great success, or it becomes bleak and the public stay away from it..weren’t you afraid of that?

No I wasn’t afraid, because I know we are discussing in this series crucial societal problems and crisis that  the audience will interact with and find it relatable. On the other hand the series is more dedicated to women, it sends powerful messages and explains them to the public in general. “Faten Amal Harby” is a series that is primarily concerned with women and their crises, but also it sends several messages to men in order not to be like Seif who made his wife and daughters suffer. I am happy with the great success the series has achieved and that the messages we have sent were well received.

6- Ibrahim Eissa works and thoughts are usually subjected to a torrent of criticism.. Is this possible to affect the percentage of viewers of the series? 

No, I do not think that this effected the series viewership. The series is well executed, the plot is not traditional, and the audience are interacting with its incidents.

7-To What extent you see it is important to raise societal issues in drama?

Certainly, as we raised the issue of children custody in Faten Amal Harby series there are many important issues that must be raised through a number of artistic works, this will be important to society and drama alike.

8-What is your opinion pertaining to this year drama marathon? 

I am against comparisons because each series has its own ideas, issues and genre. At the end of the day we all do our best to entertain the audience that’s why I am against any form of competitions or comparisons.

9-What is the main target that you want to achieve through your work? 

I strive all the time to present respectful works that have purposeful ideas, presented in a way that suit the whole the audience and contribute to raise people awareness.