Amr Salama

Amr Salama
Born (1981-11-22) November 22, 1981[1]
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Nationality Egyptian
Occupation Film director, screenwriter, blogger, writer
Known for On A Day Like Today (2008), Asmaa (2011), Excuse my French (film) (2014)

Amr Salama is an Egyptian film director, blogger, screenplayer and writer. Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (22 November 1981),[1] he would later move with his family back to Egypt.[2] He began his directing career primarily with short movies and commercials, after which he shifted to full-length movies.

Film career

Amr Salama's released his first feature movie, Zay El Naharda On a Day Like Today, in 2008. The movie was enthusiastically received among critics, and was the movie for which Salama was awarded the title of "Best New Director in 2008."[3]

In 2009, Salama submitted the script for a second movie, Excuse my French (film), based on, by his own admission, his experiences at a public middle school in Egypt after his return from Saudi Arabia.[4] Excuse my French tells the story of Hany Abdulla Sousa, a student at a private international school who comes from a Coptic family. After the death of his father the family’s socio-economic status drops and he is forced to go to a public school, where he is routinely confronted with episodes of bullying on the part of his classmates. Rejected by the Censorship Board on the ground that "there is no sectarianism in Egypt,"[3] Salama started working on what would become his second creation, the AIDS-themed Asmaa, which earned him international attention. Premiered at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival, the movie was awarded 18 international, Arab and Egyptian awards, including the award for Best Arab Director in the New Horizons competition.[3]

After the 2011 Revolution, the director renewed his attempt by submitting again the script for Excuse my French, however the script was rejected again. With the appointment of another movie director to the Censorship Board, Ahmed Awad, the movie was finally approved.[4] When speaking about the censorship issues he had to deal with, Salama stated that "[The Censorship Board] thought that this film provokes Christians, and they thought that this film would cause a civil war."[5]

After releasing "Excuse my French," Salama went on to release another film in 2014, "Made in Egypt." This film focuses on a little girl and her desire for her stuffed animal and her older brother to switch bodies so the stuffed animal could inhabit her brother's body. The little girl gets her wish and the plot continues with the brother being mischievous in the stuffed animal's body, while the stuffed animal does much more in the brother's body than he was doing in it.[6]

Writing career

Along with his directing career, Salama has also released a book, "A Kiosk Guy: A Journey in Search of the Handlebars." This book has reached the top of Al-Shorouk's selling list and was also printed in four editions within the first two months of its release.[7] Since the release of "A Kiosk Guy: A Journey in Search of the Handlebars," Salama had released another book, "Return to Sender: Short Stories, Sort of." As with his first book, this book has also reached the top of best-selling lists in Egypt.[3]

Selected Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782844/bio
  2. ↑ http://scoopempire.com/qa-amr-salama-director-excuse-french/#.U27i_iigwxM
  3. 1 2 3 4 http://www.amrsalama.com/index_en.html#Biography
  4. 1 2 http://thecairopost.com/news/81775/arts_and_culture/a-boy-in-a-bubble-amr-salamas-excuse-my-french
  5. ↑ http://muftah.org/portraying-the-other-in-amr-salamas-la-moakhza-excuse-my-french/#.VUpypmbwPOp
  6. ↑ http://www.madamasr.com/sections/culture/made-egypt-childrens-movie-disguise
  7. ↑ https://www.festivalscope.com/director/salama-amr

External links

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