Last Thursday, the celebrated Egyptian screenwriter Mustafa Moharam passed away at the age 82, after his health suddenly gave. Moharam was one of the major names in the field of screenwriting in the 1980s and 1990s, initially working in the reading department of a production company. Moharam wrote numerous memorable filmsL Ali Badrakhan's Ahl Al-Qimma (People on Top, 1981), starring Soad Hosni, Nour Al-Sherif, Ezzat Al-Alaili and Omar Al-Hariri; Hata La Yatir Al-Dokhan (So That Smoke Won't Fly, 1984), an adaptation of Ihsan Abdel-Quddos's novel starring Adel Imam, Soheir Ramzi and Ahmed Rateb, directed by Ahmed Yehia; Al-Raqesa wal Tabal (The Dancer and the Drummer, 1984), starring Ahmed Zaki, Nabila Ebeid and Adel Adham, and directed by Ashraf Fahmi; Wasmet Aar (Stigma, 1986), starring Nour Al-Sherif and Youssra, directed by Ashraf Fahmi; Atef Al-Tayeb's Al-Hob Fawk Hadabet Al-Haram (Love on the Pyramids Plateau, 1986), starring Ahmed Zaki, Athar Al-Hakim and Ahmed Rateb. In the mid 1990s, Moharam started to focus on television drama, writing the script for the Ihsan Abdel-Quddos adaptation Lan Aaish fi Gelbab Abi (I Won't Live in My Father's Robes), which was screened in Ramadan and was a huge hit. Directed by Ahmed Tawfik, it starred the brilliant Nour Al-Sherif alongside Abla Kamel in the remarkable role of Fatma, as well as Mohamed Riad, Hanan Turk, Wafaa Sadek and Nahed Roushdy. Moharam also wrote Aelat Al-Haj Metwali (Al-Haj Metwali's Family, 2001), also starring Nour Al-Sherif, and directed by Mohamed Al-Nokali; Raya wi Sekina (2005), starring Abla Kamel and Somia Al-Khashab and directed by Gamal Abdel-Hamid; Al-Batniya (2009), starring Ghada Abdel-Razek and Salah Al-Saadani and directed by Mohamed Al-Nokali; Zohra wa Azwagha Al-Khamsa (Zohra and her Five Husbands, 2010), also starring Ghada Abdel-Razek and also directed by Al-Nokali. Many of these which were screened in Ramadan. Moharam's journey with Ramadan television continued until 2015 when he wrote his last Egyptian screenplay Mulid wi Sahbo Ghayeb (Unknown Chaos), starring Haifaa Wahbi, Fifi Abdou, Hassan Al-Raddad and Basem Samra, directed by Sherine Adel. A year later he wrote a screenplay for a Kuwaiti TV drama named Khamas Banat (Five Girls), directed by Mahmoud Douaima, that was to be his last. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 April, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
