In a podcast with Egyptian filmmaker Khairy Beshara released on Soundcloud on 5 April, the artist discusses his views on cinema, his personal journey in this field, and the project he has at hand.

Titled Khairy Beshara on cinema and life, the podcast is hosted by his son Robert Beshara.

With the in-depth conversation lasting for 1.5 hours, the filmmaker dedicates a significant portion of the interview to discussing his interest in China and the personal connection he has developed with the country over the past years. His research tackled many cultural components and people in order to better create the characters and background of the movie.

Based on a true story, the film focuses on Kong Yung, who hails from the family of founders of Egypt's well-known Chinese restaurant chain, Peking.

Beshara is still working on the screenplay and is considering publishing a novel on same topic.

Beshara also discussed being honoured at the Saudi's inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival, which was scheduled to take place in March but had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The same festival has remastered and restored nine of Beshara's films, including Floater Number 70 (1982), The Collar and the Bracelet (1986), Sweet Day, Bitter Day (1988), Crab (1990), Ice Cream In Gleam (1992), Strawberry War (1993), and Traffic Light (1995).

In the interview, Beshara discusses his beginning in cinema when he was first fascinated by "the magic box," as he calls it, as well as his creative journey and views on cinema.

Born in 1947 and a graduate of the Egyptian Higher Institute of Cinema (1976) and the Film Institute in Poland (where he was on a two-year fellowship), Beshara launched his career with several documentaries – Tank Hunter (1974), The Village Doctor (1975), Illumination (1977), The Talk of the Rocks (1978), and Surpassing Despair (1980), among others – before moving on to feature narrative movies.

Beshara is one of the first Egyptian and Arab directors to venture into digital filmmaking in the late 1990s. The filmmaker also has numerous television series under his belt: Habiba's Heart (2005), Zaat (Self, 2012, episodes 17 to 30), The People of Alexandria (2014), The Flood (2017), and Karma's Curse (2018), among others.

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