Marwan Hamed won Best Director Award from FFF

CAIRO – 4 March 2018: The famous Egyptian director Marwan Hamed won the Best Director award from Fantasporto Film Festival in Portugal on his movie “El Asleen” (The Originals). The festival started on February 20.

The movie is about a man who loses his job to a younger person. He is beset by anxiety and depression that he has never experienced before. One day, he is given a cell phone and finds out that he has been spied on since the day he was born.

The spies, known as “The Originals”, ask him to work for them. He agrees because he is unemployed and needs the money. He plans in the end to leave them and start his own business.


"El Asleen" is an Egyptian drama, mystery and thriller released on the eve of Eid al-Fitr and starring Maged al-Kedwany, Menna Shalaby, Khaled el-Sawy, Kinda Alloush, Mohamed Mamdouh, Ahmed Fahmy, and rising stars Layla Fawzy and Khaled al-Zahaby. The movie was written by the acclaimed Egyptian Novelist and script writer Ahmed Mourad.

Hamed is an Egyptian filmmaker and director who was born in 1977 in Cairo. He graduated from the High Institute of Cinema in 1999, then started his 16-year career with the short movie “Lili” (2001), based on a short story by the veteran writer Youssef Idris.

In 2006, Hamed directed his first feature film “Omaret Yacoubian” (The Yacoubian Building) which brought together giants such as Adel Imam, Nour el-Sherif, Yousra, Khaled el-Sawy and Essad Younis.

The Yacoubian Building garnered several awards from important international film festivals. Following his first success, he directed Ibrahim “Labyad” (2009), starring action hero Ahmed el-Sakka, “El Feel El Azraa” (The Blue Elephant) in 2014, starring the heartthrob Egyptian star Karim Abdel Aziz, and finally “El Asleyeen” (The Natives) with Menna Shalaby and El-Sawy, released over El Fitr.

A film’s fame and success are usually attributed to its stars, but Marwan Hamed, a creative director with a unique style, is one of the very few who captured the heart of their admirers, so they wait eagerly for his next film. To his audience, he is the real star of the movie.