Expressions of sympathy

Mona Zaki:
Expressions of sympathy
She could be the girl next door -- but she's not
Profile by Gihan Shahine
Why do people love Mona Zaki? She's young and talented, of course; but that alone doesn't justify the adulation she inspires. I learn the value of discretion after making an appointment to meet her: every time I mention it, I am deluged with offers of companionship. Everyone is excited. Articles about her are almost hysterical with admiration. The press has even dubbed her Cinderella -- a moniker once reserved exclusively to the late Soad Hosni, perhaps the most popular actress in the history of Egyptian cinema. "I don't know who gave me that name or why," Zaki snaps in embarrassment. "Soad Hosni was so talented -- she was inimitable. There can never be anyone like her."
Still, being compared to the stellar Soad must have its advantages, if only because it underlines the affection Zaki arouses in her audience. "That is perhaps the only merit of being an actress: to gain people's love," she smiles, blushing. But that just sounds like modesty. After all, not all actresses are as well loved; nor is their rise to fame as swift as the skyward-bound career of this 22-year-old.
Zaki looks even younger in person than she does on screen. Her face is scrubbed clean of makeup when we meet her, and, cliché as it may sound, she is a true Egyptian beauty: clear skin and straight pitch-black hair that frames her small, childlike features. She looks as familiar as her name sounds. Maybe that's the secret of her success. She is petite and dressed in casual clothes that are more characteristic of a university student than a professional actress: a little top, blue flares, and clogs.
But there is more to Zaki than that comforting familiarity. She has qualities rare in actresses who have shot to fame as fast as she has: a rich fund of spontaneity and an unpretentious attitude. She comes across as delicate and kind; and her soft, slightly husky voice makes her sound even sweeter. But she is also brimming with liveliness. Her radiance, and that nice, open smile, give the impression of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, but still able to slip back and forth across the borders: an ebullient child one moment, she becomes an intelligent and attractive young woman the next. Occasionally, too, the cares with which success has burdened her show through, in a tired glance, or a sigh of something like resignation.
We meet Zaki at her parents' home in Mohandessin, where she lives. The apartment is furnished in a style typical of an upper-middle class family: classical yet cosy. Zaki's mother is reading Qur'an in the next room, while her five-year-old niece, Menna, interrupts our conversation every now and then to request her aunt's guidance in homework. "I keep her here with me, because I can't bear to give her back to her parents," Zaki says with a gentle smile.
Zaki's awards, however, are solemnly arranged in a corner of the living room, reminding us that this is not a typical apartment. Zaki seems to have scaled the peak of the profession in a matter of minutes; yet she has not sacrificed seriousness for all that. President Mubarak recently awarded her the state's second-class order of merit in arts and sciences for her role in Ayam El-Sadat, a film documenting the life and rule of late President Anwar El-Sadat. Zaki played the role of Sadat's wife, Jehan, as a young woman who, defying the rules of the social game, falls in love with and marries a penniless political activist, on the run from the police and not even particularly handsome. She insists on the marriage despite her family's initial opposition, and finds that love does conquer all, although the union is bogged down initially in financial difficulties and political peril. Zaki played the role with such spontaneity that Mrs Sadat said she had seen herself on screen.
Many actresses auditioned for the role, but only Zaki satisfied the rigourous demands of producer and star Ahmed Zaki (who played Sadat) and director Mohamed Khan.
"I couldn't believe it when I heard I had got the part." Zaki's face lights up as she remembers the incident. "I was overjoyed -- and terrified. I spent hours with Mrs Sadat, asking her about all the details of her life with the late president. I scrutinised her photos and wardrobe, and spent long nights reading books about Sadat. I was especially interested to know why she married him when he was not handsome and had no money or career at the time."
Zaki found the answer when she found herself next to Ahmed Zaki before the cameras. "He was great. He made me feel like a lady, and I had an enormous crush on him. Jehan had heard of Sadat before seeing him. He was the man of her dreams, and she saw the great man in him. There is more to a man than looks or money: it is the character that matters most. Unfortunately, most women in Egypt do not realise that when choosing a husband."
Zaki was obsessed by her role -- and the obsession seems to have marked her. Coincidentally, she got engaged to another young actor, Ahmed Helmi, a few weeks after the release of the Sadat film. "Ahmed is not well-off and is still starting his career, but his character is great, and I couldn't ask for more," Zaki explains. Perhaps the role gave her confidence in her choice. She beams when she mentions Helmi, and adds with a giggle: "I would have chosen Ahmed anyway. He is so understanding and supportive."
Ayam El-Sadat marks a turning point in Zaki's career, too. She is the youngest actress ever to have received the state award, and starring in a film that documents an important, controversial chapter of Egyptian history has not been an uncomplicated experience.
"The moment I received the award was indescribable, but I have literally not felt at peace since." Zaki soon realised the duty such an award imposed on her. She has to be more selective about the parts she accepts, work harder to improve her performance, worry more about public reaction and make sure her popularity does not wane. This is the real world, and for the first time she has experienced the downside of success: not one of her colleagues called her to congratulate her.
Her tone grows serious. "I feel so worried all the time, and that makes me less happy. It is easy to achieve success, but it is truly difficult to keep it up, you know."
It's true that her climb to the pinnacle seems to have been smooth. Is she exceptionally talented?
"It's luck and fate, I would say," she interjects. Zaki does not see herself as talented. At school, she refused to act: all she would do was help with lights and costumes, or maybe props. She felt dizzy at the very idea of appearing on stage.
A little twist of fate, however, taught her to pose gracefully before the camera and stand confidently before an audience. Veteran actor Mohamed Sobhi saw her hidden talent much earlier, when she was just 13. Sobhi was holding auditions, looking for new actors to work in his play Bil 'Arabi Al-Fasih (In Plain Arabic). Zaki showed up -- but she did not intend to audition. She was a great fan of Sobhi's work, and desperately wanted to meet him. "It was all a game, nothing else," she recalls. "He asked me to audition, and I said I didn't know how to act. He insisted I memorise a scene and come back. I did, just to see him again. I had a big smile on my face, and no feeling for the part whatsoever."
Sobhi, however, saw something Zaki didn't. He chose her for the role, and she spent a year and half in the production. He taught her how to pitch her insubstantial voice, to enunciate correctly -- in short, to perform. He introduced her to the world of acting; she substantiated this invaluable experience with a course in theatrical performance.
She found it interesting -- but no more so than the many different sports she had taken up and abandoned over the years. That, at least, was how her family saw it: acting was a hobby to pass the time. Besides, her first contact with the stage occurred during a fallow time: the diploma she had obtained in Kuwait was not accredited in Egypt, and no school would accept her. She was only 13, but had to take a year and a half off school. Zaki was educated first in England, then in the US, and finally in a foreign language school in Kuwait.
Once the curtain had fallen for the last time on Bil 'Arabi Al-Fasih, Zaki returned to the US, enrolling in a two-year course at the Heritage Academy in Louisiana. She was, after all, the daughter of a university professor, and her family insisted that she pursue a higher education. To satisfy their wish, she entered Cairo University's faculty of communications, where she is still completing her last year (having lost two years due to a frantically busy schedule and an accident that confined her to her bed a few years ago).
"I never liked studying, and would never work in media or public relations. I just don't fit the jobs: I'm neither talented nor sociable," she says with something approaching a pout.
Her fondness for acting, however, remained unabated during this time of academic diligence. She applied for a position at the Institute of Dramatic Arts when she returned to Cairo, but had to leave after entering Cairo University. The brief period she spent at the institute, however, introduced her to director Ismail Abdel-Hafez, who chose her to play a part in Al- 'A'ila (The Family), a Ramadan soap that marked Zaki's TV debut.
What started as a game, then, became a profession. She later acted in a number of popular TV series: Khalti Safiya wal- Deir (Aunty Safiya and the Monastery); Layali Al-Helmiyya (Helmiyya Nights); Nisf Rabi' Al-Akhar (The Second Half of Rabi'); Ahalina (Our Families); Didd Al- Tayyar (Against the Tide); and Al-Daw' Al-Sharid (Drifting Light).
TV paved her way to the big screen. Starting with Al-Qatl Al-Laziz (Delicious Killing), Zaki went on to play lead roles in Sa'idi fil-Gam'a Al-Amrikiya, Al-Hobb Al-Awal (First Love), and Leih Khallitni Ahibbak? (Why Did You Make Me Love You?). She received awards for her roles in Idhak Al-Soura Titla' Hilwa (Smile for the Camera) and Omar 2000 (in which she played a girl who was buried alive by mistake). Last summer, almost simultaneously with Ayam El-Sadat, Zaki starred in Africano, anther box-office success -- although its novelty resided solely in the fact that it was shot in a safari park in South Africa.
Zaki also returned to theatre with Li'b Eyal (Child's Play), Ya Misafer Wahdak (Lone Traveler) and Afroto; she can currently be seen in the riotous Keda OK.
Still, Zaki prefers herself on screen, where she can take her time with every blink. Most of her roles on film, however, revolve around the same theme: a young girl, usually conservative and educated, falls in love and overcomes obstacles to get her guy. Love ends in marriage in Sa'idi and leaves her heart-broken in Leih Khallitni Ahibbak? In Africano Zaki falls for her cousin, who in a series of implausible twists helps her save her father's legacy in South Africa. Love, of course, ultimately leads to marriage.
But shouldn't Zaki be seeking more sophisticated roles after her success in Sadat? "I'd love to," she enthuses. But a shortage in good scripts leaves her little choice. The cinema crisis has affected Zaki's generation the most. Most films are either light comedy or light romance -- there is no space, it seems, for other visions.
"I dream, for instance of portraying a Palestinian girl in a film about the Intifada, but who would dare make such films? Besides, they would cost a fortune... Young people make up the majority of cinema viewers, and that is why light films make for success at the box-office. The dilemma is not that of script-writers, but also of the audience the cinema is addressing." There is also the fact that women are marginalised in most films. Men, like Mohamed Heneidi and Ahmed El-Saqqa, play the lead in productions designed as blockbusters. Zaki and Hanan Turk, no matter how talented they may be, never really emerge from the scenery.
Zaki sadly concedes that women are generally given secondary parts, the main function of which is to shed light on the male characters in the story. In Sa'idi, it was Heneidi who burnt the Israeli flag, while in Africano, El-Saqqa played the heroic saviour. Few writers would bother to develop a sophisticated female character.
"I've brought up the subject at every seminar I've ever attended, but to no avail. Perhaps writers don't think we are talented enough. I guess it is also the result of patriarchy. One writer once told me 'what problem do women have that cinema can tackle?' I was too shocked to answer and haven't spoken out since."
Zaki would rather focus on her performance than on the story itself. She is satisfied with all the roles she has played, however. "I believe that love, marriage and men-women relationships are major social problems. The rate of divorce is alarmingly high and we have to tackle such topics in films. Many films now attempt to bring romance back to a society that is becoming increasingly materialistic, and that is a global trend. I'm part of Egyptian society and, as an actress, I should represent my generation, fight for their rights and correct misconceptions. I want to eliminate materialistic views of marriage, fight for women's rights, and encourage women to take better care of their careers," she says with conviction.
Zaki is currently working on Sahhar Al-Layali, in which she plays a veiled married woman who loves her husband and, although she knows he is cheating on her, fights for her family and wins him back in the end.
"When I came back to Egypt, I realised with a shock that society does poorly by women and the disabled. They are the two groups most deprived of their rights. I would really like to play the role of a disabled woman to represent the other side of disability."
Still, until such major changes take place, Zaki is content to be herself: a young actress who is still learning and developing her career. New actresses are cropping up every day, but she is happy with the competition.
"It is healthy to have many people around; it gives you something to work hard for. Otherwise, it's easy to relax." Will she ever stop acting? "Only if I stop enjoying what I'm doing, and feel I'm not achieving anything." It seems safe to say, then, that we can look forward to seeing Mona Zaki on screen for a long time to come.
photo: Sherif Sonbol
Recommend this page
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved