FEBRUARY 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Ali Abu Shadi One of the pillars of film criticism in Egypt was Ali Abu Shadi who died at the age of 72. It's a major loss to the community. Abu Shadi earned a BA in the arts from Ain Shams University in 1966, and a postgraduate diploma in criticism from the Academy of Arts in 1975. He held numerous major posts in the state including secretary of the Higher Council of Culture (2007-2009), a position second only to that of the minister of culture, overseeing various arms of the cultural establishment: the Cultural Development Fund, the Plastic Arts Sector, the Censorship Authority, the Cultural Production Sector. His career started when he was appointed editor of the state-supported magazine Cinema (1975-1983), published by the Popular Culture (now Cultural Palaces) arm of the ministry, whose brief is to provide free or affordable cultural products — stage plays, film screenings and book sales — to even the remotest villages, and which Abu Shadi would later head (1999-2001). Abu Shadi also headed the National Centre of Cinema (2001-2008), in which capacity he managed to resume some of the centre's previously discontinued activities, notably the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films (which had not been held from 1994 until the early 2000s). He was also head of the National Film Festival (1998-2010), secretary of the Higher Festivals Committee (2001-2008) and, most notably, perhaps, head Censor (twice: 1996-1999; and 2004-2009). He had refused to accept the post in the 1980s — when from within the establishment he fought the decision to ban Atef Al-Tayeb's The Innocent (1986), in which the hero played by Ahmed Zaki openly and persuasively condemns the government and other repressive bodies — rejecting censorship altogether, but now he felt he could play a constructive role in mediating between artists and the state. In 2005, indeed, he convinced then minister of culture Farouk Hosni to let him screen The Innocent uncut as part of the effort to honour Zaki. Many filmmakers and artists felt secure with a major critic and a strong and knowledgeable intellectual like Abu Shadi at the head of the Censorship Authority. Abu Shadi himself once explained how he rescued Said Hamed's comedy The President's Cook, starring Talaat Zakaria as the cook and Khaled Zaki as the president. Lotfi Labib was to play the president's right-hand man (a possible reference to then head of the presidential office under Hosni Mubarak, Zakaria Azmi), a rather hateful character. By persuading Hamed to replace Labib with Ashraf Zaki playing a more sympathetic character, in an intelligent move only someone of his experience and confidence could master, Abu Shadi managed to make the film safe and pass it. Abu Shadi was a prolific writer, producing dozens of quality books on cinema that chronicled and analysed, among other works, documentary films of the 1970s, the history of Egyptian cinema (1895-1994), Egyptian film classics and trends of the aughts. 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MARCH Greiss Louis Greiss Veteran journalist and critic Louis Greiss passed away on 26 March at the age of 90. Born in 1928 in Abu Tig, Assiut, Greiss was one of a handful of household names in journalism. In a profile of him written by Fayza Hassan that appeared in Issue 313 of Al-Ahram Weekly, Hassan writes that Greiss' “uncle called him Reuter when he was a little boy, because whenever little Louis heard something he considered of consequence he would tear down the street, stopping at the house of each one of the Greiss relatives — and there were many — to relate the incident: ‘I made it my business to find out what was going on. Once I found out, I felt it was my duty to share the information with as many people as possible.' “When he was not disseminating news, Louis enjoyed walking in funerals. Whenever the church bell tolled, announcing a death, he would hurry to the church and take his place within the procession following the deceased, whom he did not know, all the way to the cemetery, crying with the family. ‘I don't know why, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of funerals in those days.' “For some reason, Greiss chose to join the journalism club. He remained at the Faculty of Science for two years, but somehow he did not feel at home there. One day, he asked Fawzi (the dean of the faculty), how one went about becoming a journalist. Fawzi suggested the American University in Cairo, and Greiss needed no further encouragement. He enrolled in 1951.” He studied journalism and literature at the American University in Cairo and graduated in 1955. “He was told that Al-Ahram was hiring students who had graduated top of their class, but instead of the smooth career he was led to believe awaited him, doors now began to close in his face. When he went to Al-Ahram to apply for a job, he was told the organisation no longer took in graduates. “He went back to the AUC and joined Development Service Department, made an unsuccessful attempt to work for Al-Gomhouriya, and worked for a while at Dar Al-Hilal, sticking maquettes on large sheets of cardboard. It was as close as he had ever been to real journalism and, in a way, he did not mind the job. “Fate once more changed his course when he met artist Hassan Fouad, who offered him a position at Rose Al-Youssef organisation. “He did not hesitate and met Ahmed Bahaaeddin, the future editor-in-chief of the new magazine Rose Al-Youssef was launching Sabah Al-Kheir. Bahaaeddin offered him a job reporting for the new publication. Greiss' dream was finally becoming reality, he had become a journalist. “Greiss had applied for a scholarship to study for a year in the US. He had made third place, and quickly forgot the whole thing. While he was happily settling down at Sabah Al-Kheir, he received a letter from the AUC. The first two candidates had declined the scholarship, it was now offered to him. Soon Greiss was enrolled in Ann Arbour, Michigan. He by-lined the articles he sent to Sabah Al-Kheir ‘Louis Greiss, reporting from Washington.' “On his return, he became managing editor of Sabah Al-Kheir, ‘and in 1968 I became co-editor-in-chief, together with Mamdouh Al-Saadani.' Later he became the sole editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1980 to 1989 when he retired. He was a member of the Supreme Press Council.” He married the late actress Sanaa Gamil, a love story that was known to circles close to them, but what was not known is that when she asked what was delaying their marriage, he answered that there were some things to be done, he would have to convert to Islam, but to his surprise she answered that she was Christian. Their marriage lasted for 40 years; she died in 2002. “He saw himself as a political commentator ‘when I came back from the States, I felt I had matured enough to really get my career going, and I wrote what I considered my first article of consequence. Abdel-Nasser was going to deliver a speech the following day. At the time every newspaper had a censor who read all the articles before publication. He called me in. “I know that you have come back, and I am sure that your mistake was made was made in good faith, so I will keep our little conversation a secret. In your article, you are commenting on what should or should not be done and giving us your personal opinion. You only required to listen carefully to the Rais' speech, then bring out its main points, praising them. We are not interested in anything else. “Greiss took up translation, 500 short stories became accessible to the public in Arabic translation, thanks to his efforts. He had discovered that he could always select foreign short stories which conveyed a message with which he agreed. “‘I liked Abdel-Qoddous' writings and tried to use his technique to decide on the topics I would address in my stories.'” In addition to his journalism, Greiss wrote a number of short stories like Al-Hobb wal Mal (Love and Money) and Hadha Ma Yahdouth Lel Nas (That What Happens to People), and he translated the play The Price by Arthur Miller. In 1990 he was a participant in the preparatory meetings with Ccairman of the board of Al-Ahram Establishment Ibrahim Nafie before the launch of Al-Ahram Weekly; he was the one to suggest the name. 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APRIL Fahmi Amal Fahmi Iconic Egyptian radio host Amal Fahmi passed away on 8 April, leaving behind the long and impressive legacy of five-decade career. Fahmi graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University with a degree in Arabic language before joining the Egyptian national radio in 1951. In 1958, she launched her weekly radio show Aal-Nasseya (At The Street Corner) on the country's main radio station. Over the next 50 years, she became one of the most successful radio hosts in Egypt, interviewing a wide range of guests from ordinary members of the public to local and international celebrities. Fahmi's show was suspended only once in the late 1960s, after it aired a complaint by a citizen who critiques the government under president Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Fahmi was the first woman to head a state-owned radio station in the Middle East. She was married to radio director Mohamed Alwan. 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JULY Hayatem Hayatem On 22 July Egyptian dancer and actress Hayatem died at the age of 69. Born in 1949 as Soheir Hassan Mohamed in Alexandria, Hayatem embarked on her artistic journey as a professional belly dancer in Alexandria in the 1960s, beginning to act later on her arrival to Cairo. She acted alongside Nour Al-Sherif and Soad Hosni in Gharib Fi Bayti (A Stranger in My House, 1983) directed by Samir Seif and starred opposite Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Samir Ghanem, Soheir Ramzi and the popular singer Ahmed Adawiya in Al-Banat Aayza Eih (What Girls Want, 1980) and Waraa Al-Shams (Beyond the Sun, 1978). In recent years she starred alongside Mona Zaki in Youssri Nasrallah's Ehki Ya Scheherazade (Tell it, Scheherazade, 2009). She also made a number of notable television appearances, including Zuhra Wa Azwagha Al-Khamsa (Zuhra and Her Five Husbands, 2010). Sharaf Mohamed Sharaf Talented actor Mohamed Sharaf passed away in the same month at the age of 55. Born in Alexandria in 1963, Sharaf acted on stage before making his name in television, notably in the role of Sambo alongside Salah Al-Saadani, Hoda Sultan and Hisham Selim in screenwriter Osama Anwar Okasha's popular 1994 series Arabesque. Sharaf often played the role of the villain and the small-time criminal, in which capacity he supported comedian Mohamed Heneidi in films like Belya wi Demagho Al-Alia (High Belya, 2000), Askar fil Moaskar (Askar in the Camp, 2003) and Ramadan Mabrouk Abul-Alamein Hamouda (2008); he also supported Ahmed Helmi in Zaki Chan (2005), Zarf Tarek (Urgent Situation, 2006), Asef Ala Al-Izaag (Sorry for the Inconvenience, 2008) and X-Large (2011). In 2008, he gave one of his memorable performances in Sameh Abdel-Aziz's Cabaret. 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AUGUST Shaker Nagy Shaker The distinguished Egyptian artist and puppeteer Nagy Shaker died on 18 August at the age of 86. His name became synonymous with puppet theatre after he designed the puppets for the great musical Al-Leila Al-Kebira (The Big Night) in 1961, but his achievement is far more wide-ranging and he is likely to be best remembered as a teacher and a mentor to whom generations of artists owe their sense of direction. Born in 1932, Shaker worked as a director, set designer and painter. He experimented with nearly all forms of art: poster, graphic and interior design. His film Seif 70 (Summer 70), co-directed by Paolo Isaja, is in the film collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). Shaker received the State Appreciation Award, granted by Egypt's Supreme Council for Culture, in the field of the arts in 2015. Shaker's last art work was an exhibition entitled Light Talk, displaying 14 light installations. Made before his death, Egyptian director Youssef Nasser's short documentary on Shaker's life and work, Al-Naht Fel Zaman (Sculpting in Time), won the Jury Award at the Arab Cinema Festival in Paris. Amin Samir Amin The death at 89 of the great Egyptian-French political theorist Samir Amin has echoed across the world. His loss was felt with particular intensity in the Third World, whose struggles he championed throughout his life, and in the country of his birth, Egypt. The inventor of the term Eurocentrism, Amin was an original thinker and exemplar of Marxism. He championed the fight against the American-led unipolar world order and was an early and prescient critic of political Islam and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood. “Imperialism,” Amin wrote, summing up his focus on the non-mathematical implications of historical materialism, “is precisely the amalgamation of the requirements and laws for the reproduction of capital; the social, national and international alliances that underlie them; and the political strategies employed by these alliances.” Born in Cairo to a French mother and an Egyptian father, he grew up between Port Said and Cairo, where he earned a Baccalauréat before moving onto Paris in 1947. Amin studied political science and economics, joining the French Communist Party. But by the time he completed his PhD thesis in 1957, exactly 10 years after he left Egypt, he had expressed disillusionment with Soviet Marxism. His thesis explored the capitalist mechanisms that create underdeveloped economies, dividing the world into north and south. Amin worked in Cairo and Bamako, Mali until 1963, when he joined the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), of which he became the director in 1970, moving to the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal 10 years later. He also taught in Paris, Poitiers and Dakar. During his three-year stay in Cairo as a political economist under Gamal Abdel-Nasser (1957-1960), Amin worked in the Institution for Economic Management, a precursor to the Ministry of Planning. He did not leave until he was forced to by a clampdown on communists in 1960. Amin's numerous books include The Liberal Virus (2003), Capitalism in the Age of Globalisation (1997) and Accumulation on a World Scale (1970). 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OCTOBER Al-Abnoudi Atiyat Al-Abnoudi On 5 October, filmmaker Atiyat Al-Abnoudi passed away at the age of 79. Born as Atiyat Awad Khalil, she was better known by the name of her former husband, the late vernacular poet Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnoudi; she kept the name even after their divorce. She was born in 1939 in Daqahliya governorate, graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Cairo University in 1963 and continued from the High Cinema Institute in 1972. She also studied film in Britain. She became one of the most important names in the field of documentary filmmaking in Egypt, so much so that she was called the Ambassador of Documentary Cinema. She also founded a production company, Abnoud, to help sustain her work. Her documentaries such as Kanto Market, Possible Dreams or Days of Democracy tackle the challenges and achievements of the working class and the dispossessed. She received the Best Co-Production Award at the Valencia International Film Festival for her film Life's Rhythm in 1990, the Egyptian Cinema Critics' Association Award for her film Who Sold and Who Bought in 1992 as well as a lifetime achievement award at the National Film Festival in 1998. Qandil Hamdi Qandil Veteran Egyptian journalist, TV host and political analyst Hamdi Qandil passed away on 31 October at the age of 82. He was one of Egypt's most daring political analysts on television and in journalism. Qandil hosted several TV shows including Aqwal Al-Suhuf (In the Press) and Raais Tahrir (Editor-in-Chief), which were aired on Egyptian national television, as well as Qalam Rosas (Pencil). He also wrote in newspapers like Al-Shorouk and Al-Masry Al-Youm. Born to a typical middle-class family, Qandil spent his early childhood in Tanta where his passion reading and writing developed. He enrolled in medical school but quickly switched to journalism. He started his professional career as a journalist at Akher Saa (Last Hour), a wide-circulation magazine, then he managed the Department of the Free Flow of Information and Communication Policies for UNESCO from 1974 to 1986. He was one of the co-founders of the Saudi-owned MBC TV, which he left three months after its launch due to political differences with the management. He hosted a programme at the Saudi-financed Arab Radio and Television (ART) under the name Maa Hamdi Qandil (With Hamdi Qandil). He returned to national television in the late 1990s to present Raais Tahrir, one of the most popular talk shows ever. In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Qandil said he was interested in having otherwise silenced people speak on his talk show, but censorship stood in the way. “I found that getting people to speak on the issue would be nonsense. I decided to say a few words to the Arab people, but about one-quarter of my messages were censored,” Qandil told the Weekly. Qandil was married to movie star Naglaa Fathi, who reportedly proposed to him three months after they met. 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NOVEMBER Rateb Gamil Rateb On 28 November, the legendary Egyptian-French actor Gamil Rateb died at the age of 92. He was born in Cairo to an Egyptian family, but he left Egypt to study politics and economics in Paris, where he eventually made his film debut in 1945. He married a French woman and became a French citizen. In 1967 he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur de Grade de Chevalier following his role in Édouard Molinaro's noir thriller Peau d'Espion (To Commit a Murder). A rare Egyptian face in Hollywood (notably as Majid alongside Omar Sharif in David Lean's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia), he made his break with Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956), performing alongside Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. But his career started anew when he returned to live permanently in Egypt in the mid-1970s, starring in such classics as Ala man Nutliq Al-Rossass (Who Do We Shoot, 1975), Shafiqa wa Metwalli (1979) and Al-Suoud ila Al-Hawiya (Climbing to the Abyss, 1988). For nearly 65 years Rateb acted to acclaim in both countries and both languages as well as, occasionally, English, working in both comic and more serious registers. He became a fixture of Egyptian television with such series Yawmiyat Wanis (Wanis' Diary, eight seasons starting in 1991) with comedian Mohamed Sobhi, Al-Raya Al-Baida (White Banner, 1988) with the great actress Sanaa Gamil, and Damir Abla Hekmat (Miss Hekmat's Conscience, 1991) with the Lady of the Arab Screen Faten Hamama. Rateb acted in over 100 films, for which he received countless awards and honours, maintaining a career of truly astonishing range. As well as Souad Hosni and other Golden Age icons, he worked with both filmmaker Youssef Chahine (Adieu Bonaparte, 1985) and comedy superstar Adel Imam (Hobb fi Al-Zinzana, or Love in the Prison Cell, 1983). He will be remembered in many different places by many different people. 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DECEMBER Kami Hassan Kami On 14 December, actor and tenor Hassan Kami died at the age 82. Born on 2 November 1936, Kami studied law at Cairo University, but he also joined the Cairo Conservatory soon after its inauguration in the 1950s. His career started in 1963 with the role of Radames in Opera Aida at the Khedivial Opera House before its burning in 1971. He also performed with international, notably Soviet opera companies before he was made the Cairo Opera House artistic director in the 1990s. Kami received numerous awards including first prize at the Olympic Music Festival in Seoul in 1988; he was honoured in many countries including Italy and Japan. In 1987 he organised a performance of Aida at the Pyramids for the first time, which was attended by an 27,000 attendees through eight evenings. Kami made his cinematic debut in Gounoun Al-Hob (The Madness of Love, 1977). He appeared in Youssef Chahine's Alexandria-New York in 2004 as well as such films as Zaki Chan (2005), Nasser 56 (1996) and Bobbos (2009); he also appeared in TV series like Bawabet Al-Halawani (1992) and Dami wa Demoui wa Ebtesamaty (My Blood, My Tears and My Smiles, 1997) and Al-Gamaah (The Brotherhood, 2010). Kami and his late wife Nagwa owned the L'Orientalist bookshop, a Cairo hub for rare and antique books prints she had been passionate about.
