In his 30-year career as an actor, Ahmed Zaki took on a substantial and significantly diverse range of roles. Mohamed El-Assyouti looks at the main turning points, and the most prominent directors he was affiliated with Al-Barii (The Innocent, 1986) was directed by Atef El-Tayeb. The film tells the story of Ahmed Sabieleil Radwan El-Fouli, a hard working farmer who is brought from his remote village to serve as a central security (riot police) soldier. Clearly mentally challenged when his superiors tell him that the political prisoners in the camp are "enemies of the homeland" El-Fouli does not hesitate to kill a prisoner who attempts to escape. When an educated friend from his village is brought to the camp, his trust in the whole establishment is shaken. This character was penned by Wahid Hamed, who in his usual sensational manner has El-Fouli rebel and massacre the officers and all the rank and file, with the exception of one new recruit who survives to kill him. After being held for many months by censors, the finale massacre scene was cut out, and the screen freezes on El-Fouli's rebel yell. Ahmed Zaki played El-Fouli: his body language, stiffened neck, challenging stare and frown bringing his thick eyebrows ever closer, matched with slightly slow but spontaneous speech articulation, was vintage Zaki and as close as performers get to method acting in Egyptian film. In one scene, he is bathing in his underwear in an almost stagnant narrow canal. When village girls pass by, he dives into the dirty waters out of modesty. In another film, State Security Officer Hisham, who oppresses outspoken writers and political activists. When he is removed from office his wife Mona becomes the main victim of his oppression. Zawgat Ragul Muhim (Wife of an Important Person, 1988) was directed by Mohamed Khan and Zaki played Hisham opposite Mervat Amin as Mona. The screen chemistry was flawless, so much so that 23 years later, Khan would be directing them as Anwar and Gihan El-Sadat. Zaki's collaborations with directors El-Tayeb and Mohamed Khan were the most salient feature of his rise to stardom in the 1980s. Zaki, with his dark complexion and naturalistic impersonation of his characters, ideally matched the efforts of these prolific filmmakers who spearheaded the movement that came to be known as "New Realism" in Egyptian cinema. The chameleon actor also played hair dresser Shoukri, who falls in love with Nawal (Souad Hosni), oppressed by her husband Ezzat Abul-Rous (Hussein Fahmi), and who refuses to grant her divorce, and has Shoukri killed in Mawid Ala Al- Ashaa (Date for Dinner, 1981). In Tae'r Ala Al-Tariq (Bird on the Road, 1981), Zaki is Khan's alter-ego, Fares, a station wagon driver flying back and forth on the highway until he meets his fate, again after getting involved with a desolate wife -- both films were written by Beshir El-Deek. Two years later, Khan and El-Deek collaborated on another Fares, but disagreements emerged and Zaki played another El-Deek character, this time in the commercial hit, Al-Nimr Al-Aswad (Black Tiger, 1984) directed by veteran Atef Salem, and based on a true success story of an Egyptian boxer who immigrates to Germany and becomes a big businessman. Later, Zaki was to collaborate with Khan on Zawgat Ragul Muhim and Ahlam Hind wa Camilia (Dreams of Hind and Camilia, 1988) where he plays the character Eid, who becomes alternatively petty thief, swindler, microbus driver, black marketeer and then prisoner. Both films were produced in the same year by Hussein El-Qala. In 1989, Khan also has Zaki in mind for his third an last Fares character, but again, disagreements got in the way. Their next two collaborations were Mr Karate (1993) and Ayyam El-Sadat (Days of Sadat, 2003). With El-Tayeb, who died a decade ago aged 47, Zaki played upright lawyer Magdi in Al-Takhshiba (The Detention Room, 1984), written by Hamed, and corrupt lawyer Mustafa Khalaf in Deidd Al-Hukouma (Against the Government, 1992), written by El-Deek. Most notably, however, he played Ali, the poor civil employee, who sexually frustrated, falls in love with his colleague, and gets married secretly to her after her undersecretary father rejects his proposal. Ali fails to provide shelter for their romantic encounters except atop the Pyramid's hill, where the police arrest them both for public display of affection. Based on Naguib Mahfouz's novel, the film was written by Mustafa Moharam, who scripted another adaptation of a Mahfouz novel, Al-Lis Wal Kilab (The Thief and the Dogs), and which El-Tayeb was to direct as Al-Huroub (The Escape, 1991). In the latter, Zaki plays the Southern Egyptian Muntassir, who is falsely accused of fraud and imprisoned. Once released from jail, Muntassir seeks out his best friend and his ex-fiancée who had betrayed him but ends up killing other people by mistake. In this typical film noir plot, the police on the chase use media coverage of Muntassir's crimes to distract public opinion from their clamp down on Muslim Brotherhood elements. Muntassir represents the common citizen made to pay for social and police corruption. Besides his work with Khan and El-Tayeb, Zaki collaborated with director Khairi Bishara, in the film Al-Awama Sabiin (Houseboat 70, 1982), in a role as documentary director Ahmed, investigating the mysterious murder associated with corruption in cotton factories. In Kaboria (Crab, 1990) Zaki was also cast as disappointed boxer Hassan Hodhud, who is hired by rich people to entertain them in staged boxing matches. The film was a critical success and commercial hit that reinforced Zaki's star status at a time when the local film industry was entering into a crisis. In late 1970s TV serials, Zaki played the parricide- inspiring Ivan of Fyodor Dostoevski's Brothers Karamazov, the vengeful Heathcliff of Emily Bront�'s Wuthering Heights, the amnesiac protagonist of Naguib Mahfouz's Al- Ragul Al-Lazi Faqad Zakiratahu Maratayn (The Man who Lost his Memory Twice), and the opportunist impoverished university student of Ihsan Abdel-Qudous's Ana La Akzib wa Lakini Atagammal (I Don't Lie but I Embellish Myself) in an eponymous TV film. The 1980 serial Al-Ayyam (The Days), based on Arab literary pillar Taha Hussein's autobiographical novel, both established him as a capable actor and wetted his appetite for impersonating major historical figures -- much later in his career he enthusiastically pursued the roles of presidents Nasser, then Sadat, and finally the legendary singer Abdel-Halim Hafez in his last film. However, between these two periods of impersonating public personas, Zaki had evenly distributed his talent between "New Realism" films and commercial action or comedy vehicles. Earlier in his career, he played a Muslim who has an affair with and a child from a Jewish girl who immigrates to Israel after WWII in Youssef Chahine's autobiographical Iskendriya Leih? (Alexandria, Why? 1979). In Salah Abu Seif's political satire Al-Bidaya (The Beginning, 1986) he plays one of a group of plane crash survivors stranded on an island and who is accused of being an "atheist" because he calls for "democracy". From illiterate soldier, to doorman, fish vendor, thief, police officer, boxer and drug lord, and eventually minister and president, this chameleon actor played perhaps the most believable characters in Egyptian cinema.
