1st death anniversary of veteran director Mohamed Khan

CAIRO - 26 July 2017: Among other from his generation, Mohamed Khan (October 26, 1942 – July 26, 2016) lead the movement of Realism in Egyptian Cinema. His movies were the social drama type, bringing the light to day-today life of the Egyptian society in the 80’s, 90’s and kept up with that theme until his last movie “Before the Summer Crowds” in 2016.

Khan was born to Egyptian- Italian mother and a Pakistani father yet he is an embodiment of Egyptian realism. He had a lengthy struggle to gain the Egyptian nationality ended when only he got a presidential decree to get it in 2014.
A glimpse of his career

In the first anniversary of his passing, Mohamed Khan is greatly missed on the cinematic arena.

His legacy of 25 movies cemented as landmarks in the Egyptian cinema. He wore the hat of a producer in only one movie, ‘Fares el-Madina’ or Knight of the City. He invested all his money to produce this movie. He presents his views comprehensive way, no pressure from a producer to, or the market needs, he just wanted to give his view on filmmaking as he sees it.

Writing the movie himself, having the courage to shoot the film in Cairo streets – which is a nightmare due to traffic, giving the chance to new faces who became stars later (the current superstar Khaled el-Sawy as an example is in one scene), the great director Magdy Ahmed Aly was an assistant director in this movie.

The movie was a project that Khan believed in. As usual when creativity is extended to its fullest, where the genius comes out in full power, the box office suffers. Khan lost his money in this adventure and the movie is the least known among his work, yet all his cinematic talent and philosophy is expressed vividly in this movie. The story is that of a self-made business man played by Egyptian actor Mahmoud Hemida, who was in crisis to return borrowed money to a drug tycoon. The end is that he returns back to having nothing, but being alive while the tycoon is caught by the police. Our hero did not lose, he actually wins and ends up happy with a newfound love and winning.

His themes varied between denouncing the oppression in the Egyptian society and shedding the light on social problems. The real landmark is ‘An Important Man’s wife,’ where he portrayed a police officer intoxicated by power and involved oppressing the political opponents of the regime. The late legendary actor Ahmed Zaki played a memorable role in that 1987 movie.

The prizes that Khan got in his career are numerous and his unique style can be distinguished easily by the audience.