Amr Salama

Amr Salama (Arabic: عمرو سلامة‎; born 22 November 1981) is an Egyptian film director, blogger, screenwriter, and author. Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,[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.

Amr Salama
Picture of Amr Salama
Born (1981-11-22) 22 November 1981[1]
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
NationalityEgyptian
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter, blogger, writer
Known forOn A Day Like Today (2008), Asmaa (2011), Excuse My French (2014)

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, 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]

On May 26, 2019 he announced he is going to direct his first project with Netflix, a series called "ما وراء الطبيعة".

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]

Filmography

Films

Television
  • Tayea' (2018)
gollark: Oh, it works now for no apparent reason, never mind.
gollark: How can I tell why an advanced carpenter isn't advanced carpenting?
gollark: Also the orechid.
gollark: Right, I forgot Intel had actually released working 10nm products now. Back to confused, I guess.
gollark: Oh, so they're harder to cool despite the same total heat output because of the greater density of 7nm? That does make more sense.

References
  1. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782844/bio
  2. May El Khishen (2014-02-10). "Q&A: Amr Salama, Director of 'Excuse My French'". Scoopempire.com. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  3. "Amr Salama official website". Amrsalama.com. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  4. Mourad, Sarah. "A boy in a bubble: Amr Salama's 'Excuse My French'". Cairo Post. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  5. "Portraying the 'Other' in Egyptian Filmmaker Amr Salama's 'La Moakhza' (Excuse My French)". Muftah.org. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  6. "Made in Egypt: A children's movie in disguise?". MadaMasr. Archived from the original on 2016-09-28. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  7. "Amr Salama - Festival Scope: Festivals on Demand for Film Professionals World Wide". Festival Scope. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
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