Mario Bahbouh
Great people often leave this world and leave two things behind for us; a legacy and a debate. The year 2020 left us and with the company of many great icons, an attitude 2021 seems to be adamant to continue. Waheed Hamed left Earth on the second of January after he was borned on the first of July, 1944 .He died at the age of 67. 40 of those years bore fruit in the form of numerous movies, radio shows and the hit T.V series “Al Gama’a”.
Humble Beginnings
A collection of 80 works, coupled with a great talent in portraying accurately the pulse of the people of Egypt, easily cement Hamed’s place among the greatest screenwriters of Egypt. A goal he had set his eyes on by placing greats such as; Naguib Mahfouz and Shakespeare, as some of his favourites in the craft. However, his start was on the much smaller, nevertheless impactful, scale of short story writing which materialised in the collection of short stories titled as "القمر يقتل عاشقه"
A graduate of Ain Sham’s faculty of Arts in 1967 and an avid reader of both local and international literature, Hamed decided to employ his talents as a columnist in several newspapers before being convicted by yet another role model of his, the widely successful author and playwright to redirect his efforts into screen writing.
The Successful Trio
Mr. Hamed’s screen portfolio contains an abundance of, not only successful productions, but also iconic and time enduring masterpieces. The hit T.V series “The Dreams of a Flying Boy” (1978) starring Egyptian Cinema icon Adel Emam, serves as a great example of the kind of widespread popularity Hamed’s writing attracted, however, it also represented the start of a partnership that would produce 10 movies that include; Al Halfout, The Yacoubian Building, Al Ghoul ( The Ogre ), Vote for Dr. Seliman Abdel Basset and A man lives once only.
Their partnership was truly able to blossom and dominate the Egyptian box office in the 90’s under the guidance of Sherif Arafa in the Director’s chair to produce one masterpiece after the other. Toyour Al Zalam ( Birds of Darkness ), El Nom fee al Asal (Sleeping in Honey), El Mansy ( The forgotten) and El Le3b May Al Kebar ( Playing with Giants ) were all the fruits that this partnership was able to bear, but the most iconic movie of this trio’s production is El Erhab Wal Kebab ( Terrorism & Kebab).
All 5 movies produced by the trio discussed the political platform of the time and exposed the corruption that was widespread at the time with Emam skill-fully portraying an average citizen in many of those movies or even a corrupt politician coupled with trademark close-ups of Arafa, resulted in all movies being box office hits.
Geuvara or Lackey; The debate
With widespread popularity comes widespread controversy. Audiences and critics have always admired the courageous attitude of Hamed’s writing which often criticized directly and indirectly the unethical behavior of many of the ministers present in the governments that were around when Hamed was around.
A lot of people praised him for being able to openly discuss taboo subjects; for example, introducing a gay character in The Yacoubian Building.
He was also known for his accurate representation of the state of prisons and the extent of torture in many of these institutions around Egypt as well as the inhumane attitude cell wardens and high ranking officers had and have towards human beings that happened to be prisoners. To the extent that the ending of his famous movie Al-Baree ( The Innocent), a movie concerned with how political prisoners are treated, was forcibly changed and edited because it involved an emotional burst of the main character.
This ending was not something the Egyptian Censorship was willing to accept and it might have served as an indication to the extent Hamed’s writing can reach and placing a ceiling to his admirable courage.
Despite many of his movies being accredited for stirring up and cooking the events of the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, a movement that was against the extensive double dealing that had stained Egyptian politics for a very long time, Hamed’s opposition is adamant that his role was always guided one way or another, by certain guidelines the government has provided for him.
He has also been criticised for avoiding any criticism directed towards President Hosni Mubarak, a symbol of the corruption of these days. A lot of his opposition include leaders of the Muslim world for “opening the eyes” of the audience to sinful habits and ideas like drinking and homosexual relationships.
There is no denying that the Arab World and Cinema Industry has lost a legend, a once in a life time talent on the 2nd of January 2021 who has left behind a major creative gap in the industry. May he rest in peace.
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