AIFF to celebrate the Centennial birthday of Ihsan Abdel Quddous

CAIRO – 30 March 2019: Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries will celebrate the Centennial birthday of veteran late writer Ihsan Abdel Quddous.
The festival's 35th edition is set to be held from Oct. 8-13.

Abdel Quddous was an Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist and editor in Egypt's Al-Akhbar (The news) and Al-Ahram newspapers. He is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films.

Abdel Quddous was born in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian father, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, and Egyptian-Turkish actress Rose al-Youssef. His favorite hobby as a child was reading. At the age of 11, he started writing short stories and classical poems.

His father, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, an Egyptian theatre and film actor, motivated him to pursue a career in law.
Abdel Quddous graduated from law school in 1942 and worked as a lawyer. He was, at the beginning of his career, a trainee for the law firm of Edward Qussairi, a famous Egyptian lawyer. He was also an editor in Rose al Youssef, a weekly magazine that his mother Fatima al Youssef (aka Rose al-Youssef) had founded.

In 1944, he started writing film scripts, short stories, and novels. He later left his law career to focus on his literary career. A few years later, he became a distinguished journalist in Al-Akhbar newspaper, where he worked for eight years.

He then worked in Al-Ahram newspaper and became its editor-in-chief. He often criticized important personalities, which got him imprisoned three times throughout his journalism career. During his life, Abdel Quddous enriched the Egyptian literature and cinema with everlasting works.

Abdel Quddous regarded women as symbols of sacrifice in the Egyptian society which was why women were the central theme of his literary works. His works influentially contributed to bring change in the conventional concepts in Egypt.
On the contrary to his literary works, he was a very conservative person. He was known to have a resisting personality and had been a strict husband and father in his house. He wrote more than 60 novels and collections of short stories.

Of his novels, five were dramatized, nine were used as radio series scripts, ten had television miniseries adaptations, and 49 had film adaptations. His works have been translated to several foreign languages including English, French, German, Ukrainian, and Chinese.

Abdel Quddous also co-founded the Egyptian Story Club.

It is worth mentioning that Members of the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics unanimously approved the proposal of head of the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries Amir Abaza to announce Rauf Tawfik the honorary president of the festival’s 35th edition.



The decision came in light of the absence of previous honorary president, historian Ahmed Hadari, president of the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics and chairman of the Alexandria Film Festival in 2017.

Famed film critic Rauf Tawfik presented four films, “Mishwar Omar”, “Zawgat Ragol mohem” (The Wife of an Important Man), "Mr. Karate" all directed by Mohamed Khan and "Farah" directed by Hani Lashin. He also wrote 11 cinematic books that were submitted to the association’s library.

The veteran film critic was also honored at the 2016 Catholic Film Festival, Sabah el-Khair magazine in 2017 and the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics in 2017.