Alexandria Film Festival to honour Mahfouz Abdel Rahman

CAIRO – 22 August 2017: The Alexandria International Film Festival for Mediterranean countries headed by the veteran cinema critic Amir Abaza announced that the festival will organise an honouring ceremony to the great late script writer Mahfouz Abdel Rahman, as an appreciation to his great achievements in the art and culture field in Egypt and the Arab world.

The honouring ceremony will include granting Abdel Rahman the golden mermaid shaped medal of the festival, in addition to displaying his movie ‘Nasser 56’ which portrays the life of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The movie will be followed by a seminar attended by the renowned Egyptian actress Samira Abdel Aziz the wife of Abdel Rahman, Mohamed Fadel the film director and the great actress Fardous Abdel Hamid, the movie heroine. The Scenario award in the festival as well will hold the name of Abdel Rahman from now on.

Abdel Rahman was an art critic, drama writer, radio series writer and had his own school for creative writing. He employs in-depth research in his work, especially his historical series such as ‘Bawabet al- Halwani’ (Halwani’s Gate), where he narrates in over one hundred and twenty episodes the digging of the Suez Canal.

He was the one that producers from all over the Arab world turned to when taking on a dramatizing historical event. He wrote the movie ‘Al Qadesya’ about the conquest of Persia by the Islamic armies in the 6th century; ‘The Night Granada Fell,’ about sending the Islamic forces out of Spain in the 14th Century, to name a couple. His legacy is much more than that and each and every one of his works left a mark in TV drama, theatre and cinema.

The 33rd edition of the Alexandria International Film Festival headed by the great cinema critic Amir Abaza will take place from October 7-12, under the patronage of the Egyptian Minister of Culture Helmy al-Namnam. The Festival management announced that it will dedicate this round to the veteran Egyptian actor Hussein Fahmy, and thus the Festival will organise a big celebration for the great actor.