CAIRO - 10 September 2017: Amr Salama, the director and author of the “Sheikh Jackson” movie, talked about the passion that prompted him to write the movie. According to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter on September 8 he used the death of the king of pop Michael Jackson as the driving force behind the movie.
He spoke about the idea of switching between pop star and bearded sheikh.
Salama said he was a huge fan of the king of pop t school, sporting long hair and having the nickname “Jackson.” He narrated the changes that happened in the late 90s and early 2000s when there were a lot of girls with headscarves and a revival of Islam in society.
The script has gone through about 11 drafts and five scenarios. “I was too attached to the character, but I didn’t surrender and kept working,” the Hollywood Reporter cited Salama.
After the January 25 Revolution, Salama says there was an identity crisis in society, prompting Salama to discuss this idea in through the movie. He describes the end product as “love letter to life.”
One of the difficulties, maybe the biggest one, was the music and songs for the film when they couldn’t gain the rights to use the original Michael Jackson songs. To circumvent this he hired musicians to create new music similar to Jackson’s.
Sheikh Jackson is a controversial movie starring Ahmed al-Fishawy, and it goes back to the day pop star Michael Jackson died.
The story of Sheikh Jackson revolves around a student who loves Michael Jackson's songs and imitates him in almost everything. This student has a strong relationship with a Salafist, which reflects the contradictions in his life. The student decides to go on an inner Sufi quest and look for answers to his existential questions.
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