Egyptian film director Marwan Hamed announced the launch of the new website documenting the life and works of his father, Egypt’s renowned screenwriter Wahid Hamed, who passed away early this year.
“The website introduces an official register of Wahid Hamed’s oeuvre in film, TV, theatre, and radio. Additionally, it gives users access to all the articles, interviews, and features about him published in newspapers and magazines. Furthermore, it offers an extended gallery of images and videos featuring him in different interviews,” reads the information released by MAD Solutions, an Egyptian promotional and distribution company.
“Through more than 100 films, TV dramas, radio shows, and theatrical productions, Egyptian screenwriter Wahid Hamed carved a place for himself in the Arab world by utilising all the dramatic tools he could get his hands on since the 1970s and over 50 years. The success of his work was reflected in the rave reviews received from audiences and critics alike.”
Here is the link to Wahid Hamed’s website
Wahid Hamed (Photo: Al Ahram Weekly)
Born in 1944 in Sharqiya, Wahid Hamed was not only a screenwriter but also a columnist for several magazines and newspapers.
He graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Ain Shams University in 1967, and began his career writing short stories. During the press conference following his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2020.
He devoted all his studies and efforts to audiovisual tales that would touch on the suffering of the middle and lower classes. He wrote over 80 films, stage plays, TV and radio dramas.
Hamed’s long screenwriting career is punctuated by masterpieces. In 1979 he wrote the TV series Ahlam Al-Fata Al- Taeer (Dreams of the Flying Boy), starring Adel Imam and directed by Mohamed Fadel.
Hamed and Imam formed a team that managed to make a string of significant critiques of the Egyptian political and social scene. In 1983 they made Al-Ghoul (The Ogre), directed by the late Samir Seif.
Al-Leab Maa Al-Kobar (Playing with the Giants, 1991), the duo’s first collaboration with director Sherif Arafa, was followed by Al-Irhab Wal-Kebab (Terrorism and Kebab, 1992).
It was in the 1995 Toyour Al-Zalam (The Birds of Darkness) that Hamed shifted his focus, displaying two sides of the same corruption and dysfunction in the government and the Muslim Brotherhood. It was one of Imam’s handful of roles that include some degree of villainy.
One of Hamed’s significant works was Al-Baree (The Innocent, 1985), directed by Atef Al-Tayeb, which carries a direct statement against torture.
Still from Al-Gamaa
Hamed’s conviction that Wahhabism and Islamic extremism are a major obstacle to building a modern society is clear. In 1994, he wrote the TV series Al-Aila (The Family), which tackled the relationship between poverty and the spread of the Islamic fundamentalism. Directed by Ismail Abdel-Hafez, the series starred Mahmoud Morsy, Abdel-Moneim Madbouly and Laila Elwy.
In 2010, he made the first season of the TV Series Al-Gamaa (The Brotherhood), directed by Mohamed Yassin, which dealt with the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 and the political circumstances of its rise during the 1930s and 1940s.
The second season was made in 2017, directed by Sherif Al-Bendary and dealt with the relationship between the Free Officers and the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1952 Revolution and the Nasserist era.
Hamed’s work focused on local issues and Egyptian society. His contribution at the international level was very small, though his 2009 film Ehky ya Scheherazade (Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story), directed by Yousry Nassrallah, did premiere at the Venice Film Festival (out of competition) and won him the best screenplay award at the Brussels International Independent Film Festival.
In 2017, the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has selected Hamed to receive Arab Lifetime Achievement Award.
Wahid Hamed also received a Golden Pyramid Award for lifetime achievement in the cinema field during the opening ceremony of the 42nd edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), 2020.
still from Al-Irhab Wal-Kebab
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