Luxor African Film Festival to celebrate late Egyptian actor Omar Sharif

Ahram Online , Sunday 14 Feb 2016

Besides honouring the iconic Sharif, the 5th Luxor African Film Festival will also honour Moroccan critic Mustafa Elmesnawy and Ivorian director Henry Duparc

Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif (1932 - 2015)

A book celebrating the late Omar Sharif’s legacy and published by Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) is now complete, according to a press release issued by the festival.

The book, titled Omar Sharif in the Eyes of the World, "comprises a total of 50 published articles, all translated into Arabic, and which were written about the late actor in newspapers across nine different countries," Al-Ahram Arabic quoted MENA news agency as saying.

According to MENA, film critic Ali Abou Shady was tasked with writing the introduction to the book.

MENA quoted an excerpt from the book’s prelude in which Shady writes, “When (the LAFF) organisation chose to dedicate its (5th) edition to the late Omar Sharif, and have this edition carry his name, its main aim was to affirm his Egyptian identity and assert his sense of belonging to this country, whose people he respected all his life."

"As such, it was important to explore how this great actor was seen by others who made a legend out of him.”

Sharif died of a heart attack on 10 July 2015.

He was born in Alexandria in 1932 to Catholic Syrian-Lebanese parents who named him Michelle Chalhoub.

His life's work comprised over 110 films, his international fame guaranteed following his role in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962), for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award.

For his role in Dr Zhivago (1965), Sharif won a Golden Globe Award for best actor.

Sharif is one of the "golden age" heroes of Egyptian cinema for his films A Man in Our House (1961), A Love Rumour (1959), Struggle on the Nile (1959), The River of Love (1960), and many others.

Besides honouring the iconic Sharif, the 5th Luxor African Film Festival will also honour Moroccan critic Mustafa Elmesnawy and Ivorian director Henry Duparc.

Headed by scriptwriter Sayed Fouad, this year’s edition is scheduled to run between 17-23 March, and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Ivorian film.

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