But this wasn’t the only reason Abdel-Sayed’s passing at the age of 79 on 27 December prompted a great sense of loss. Often described as Egypt’s foremost poet of the silver screen, Abdel-Sayed is one of the very few auteurs whose vision spoke volumes.
The authentically Egyptian ambiance of Al-Kit Kat, based on Ibrahim Aslan’s novel Malek Al-Hazin (The Heron, 1983), benefiting from a beautifully constructed dialogue by Abdel-Sayed, focuses Al-Sheikh Hosni, a blind widower living in Al-Kit Kat neighbourhood who refuses to admit his disability and dreams of riding a motorcycle — which he does in the course of the film — spending his nights smoking weed with his neighbours and discreetly selling his father’s house to the drug dealer for fear of censure from his son and his mother.
Al-Kit Kat, released in 1991, became a top grossing film that remained in theatres for two years, to Abdel-Aziz’s surprise because he was under the impression that he was participating in an artistic, non-commercial film. As actor Ahmed Kamal recalled in an interview published on these pages, after he saw the film for the first time at a private screening, Abdel-Aziz apologised to Abdel-Sayed for underestimating the power of the film.
Abdel-Sayed was born on 23 November 1946 in Cairo, and studied filmmaking at the Higher Institute of Cinema, graduating in 1967. Right after his graduation he started to experiment with writing screenplays. He assisted the late renowned filmmaker Kamal Al-Sheikh on Al-Ragol Al-Lazi Fakad Zilloh (The Man Who Lost His Shadow, 1968) as well as Youssef Chahine in Al-Ard (The Land, 1970).
He made his debut documentary in 1976, A Wise Man’s Advice on the Affairs of the Village and Education, following it with two other documentaries. His debut feature, Al-Saalik (The Vagabonds, 1985), captures the fierce class transformations in Egypt following the open door policy of economic liberalisation with the story of two down-and-out friends’ rise through drug dealing in Alexandria.
Abdel-Sayed’s achievement was never one of quantity, only quality; he only made nine feature films, only one of which was not written by him: Ard Al-Ahlam (1993), by Hani Fawzi; Al-Kit Kat (1991) and Sareq Al-Farah (The Stolen Joy, 1995)were based on Malek Al-Hazin and novelist Khairy Shalaby’s eponymous short story, but Abdel-Sayed adapted them both for the screen.
Abdel-Sayed is regarded one of the pillars of Egyptian neo-realism, which emerged in the 1980s. He was an adventurer who took his camera beyond the confines of the studio, shooting for example in the real Al-Kit Kat. While his cinematic language has always been allusive, delving into deep philosophical questions, he remained devoted to the struggles and triumphs of everyday people.
Abdel-Sayed’s Al-Bahth Aan Sayed Marzouk (Looking For Sayed Marzouk) was released in 1991 as well, and though not as successful it too made its mark. A day in the life of a civil servant named Youssef, it is an absurdist journey featuring encounters with a Charlie Chaplin lookalike and the Sayed Marzouk, an eccentric billionaire full of contradictions and ambiguity. While trying to find himself Youssef is accused of murder. Like Al-Kit Kat, it features a beautiful score by Rageh Dawoud.
In Ard Al-Khouf (The Land of Fear, 1999), the legendary Ahmed Zaki plays Yehia, an undercover policeman who infiltrates the world of drug lords only to end up becoming one of them. Due to administrative changes his reports to his superiors end up being lost, and he loses his original identity.
In 2001, Mowaten wa Mokhber wa Haramy (A Citizen, A Detective, and a Thief) predicted the collapse of the social contract in Egypt. Starring Hind Sabri, Khaled Abul-Naga, Salah Abdallah and the urban folk sensationShaaban Abdel-Reheim, it was followed by Rasael Al-Bahr (Messages from the Sea, 2010), a delicate love story-cum-elegy for Alexandria starring Asser Yassin and Basma.
Abdel-Sayed’s last film was Qodrat Gheir Adeya (Extraordinary Abilities, 2015), in which he continues to raise philosophical questions about Egyptian society through his protagonist Yehia, a doctor played by Khaled Abul-Naga, who conducts a scientific studies on paranormal abilities; in the end, he fails to identify anyone with provable paranormal abilities and ends up isolated in Alexandria...
After Qodrat Gheir Adeya, Abdel-Sayed announced that he would no longer be making films under social-economic conditions that were not conducive to creativity or solidarity, prompting wide-ranging debate.
Abdel-Sayed won the Silver Pyramid, the Best Screenplay Award and the best Arabic Film Award in Cairo International Film Festival in 1999. Messages from the Sea won the best actor prize (Asser Yassin) at the Carthage Film Festival in 2010, as well as the best direction, best actor and best actor in a second role (Mohamed Lotfi) at the Egyptian National Film Festival in 2013. In the same year, the Dubai Film Festival announced its choice of the best 100 Arab films and three of them were by Daoud Abdel-Sayed: Al-Kit Kat, Land Of Fear, and Messages from the Sea.
Abdel-Sayed survived by a son, Youssef, and a daughter, Salma; he had been married to journalist and writer Karima Kamal.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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