Egypt.. Producer Medhat El Adl: “The film is what remains and the star comes after it.”

Egyptian producer, screenwriter and poet Medhat El Adl confirmed in a statement to Ofoq News in Arabic that Egyptian cinema is “facing a real crisis” during the current time, even though “we have been hearing about cinema facing a crisis since the year 1945,” as he put it. Al-Adl expressed his hope that: “Arab governments will look at cinema, or businessmen will look at it the way they look at football players who pay them millions,” and added: “With all due respect to them, they certainly deserve it, but cinema, as an idea and as an influence on minds, deserves to be looked at in the same way.”

Regarding the role that stars can play in overcoming this crisis, Al-Adl answered the question of Ofoq News in Arabic: “I ask them to love the film industry, especially since they are aware of the suffering of producers, especially new ones, who are about to produce, and they see that half of the film’s budget goes as the star’s wages.” He added: I hope that the current stars will follow the example of the old stars, such as the late Nour El Sharif, Souad Hosni, and the artist Mahmoud Hamida, when they were participating in the production. People view the film as more important than the star, and this is what it is supposed to be.

He told them: “The rest is the movie, and the star comes after it, not the other way around.” At the opening ceremony of its 47th session, on Wednesday, the Cairo International Film Festival honored Medhat El-Adl, a screenwriter and poet, with the “Golden Pyramid Lifetime Achievement Award.” He gave a moving speech after receiving the honor, in which he said: “I remember my name when it appeared on the screen during the special screening of the movie (Ice Cream in Glim), and I told my wife at the time that my name has become immortal in the history of cinema.”

Al-Adl dedicated this award to his wife, noting that she always encouraged him to do what he loved, and supported him in making the decision to change his career path: “Even though I had started discussing my doctoral thesis,” as he put it. The Egyptian producer, screenwriter and poet also dedicated his tribute to director Khairy Bishara, and to “the entire Al-Adl family, headed by the late Sami Al-Adl,” in reference to his late actor brother.