Director Akram Farid has already been in the spotlight once before when he made his feature debut with “Farah Farah”. So when we had the chance to sit down for an interview, we were curious about how his career came about. DG met with Akram and asked him about how he started, likes/dislikes from the cast, and what it was like directing and working with different producers...

Please introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Akram Farid born on the 6th of March so I am a Pisces. I graduated from Veterinary Medicine school, Cairo University. And I also graduated from the High Institute of Cinema in 2001. Right now I am a lecturer at the institute at the directing department. I directed 15 short narrative movies at the beginning of my career and some documentary films and then I started my long narrative movies starting from “Farah Farah”, “3alet Mickey”, “Samy Oxide El Carbon”, “Amn Dawlat”, and “Nazaryt 3amty” my lastest movie.

There was some controversy about your lastest movie “Nazaryt 3amty” and the similarity between this movie and “Teer Enta”, what would you like to say about that? Also were you slightly concerned about the success of the movie, especially considering that this is Hassan El Radad’s first starring?
Well, the only similarity is that Omar Taher wrote the two movies and he likes to have multiple characters in his movies. The two movies are completely different. As for Hassan El Radad he is so talented and till now his real capabilities are not used well. I believe that we should expect a lot from Hassan.

You directed Omar & Salma, part 1 - but you didn’t direct part 2 & 3, why is that?
When we started preparing for the second part some financial problems came up between El Sobky and me, also different opinions regarding the movie plot itself and how to go on with the movie. So I left the movie and wished them best of luck.

Most of your movies are comedies, are you planning to direct action movie or series?
As a matter of fact, I never got an action movie but I would like to direct all kinds of movies. I want to direct a horror movie but unfortunately the producers think that such kind of movies don’t fit us here in Egypt although I think that I can direct a very high quality one. I am also planning to direct a series this year as financially it is better and also safer as most of the shooting is inside the studio and I’m hoping the audiences will like it.

What do you think about:
El Sobky: I worked with El Sobky in five movies and was totally happy and satisfied; he is like my artistic father. Turkish drama: Well, I really like it, it is so similar to us. The social and family relationships inside are conveyed in a very good way. I also beleive that politics has got nothing to do with art and we shouldn’t prevent any Turkish series just because of politics. This is art. Yousef Shahin: He is a great director, an international director and we all learned from him. Khaled Yousef: He was able to use the high techniques and high quality in directing his movies as well as getting a commercial story that is familiar to the audiences, so he held the stick from the middle and reached both goals. Inas El Deghedy: I love her so much; she is among the most daring directors in Egypt. Mohamed Samy: A dear friend and I want to tell him to stay calm and keep good relations with his colleagues.

What about the violent movies and it’s spread nowadays?
The cinema is the mirror of society and if you walk down the streets you will find the violence everywhere.

How do you deal with criticism?
I respect it a lot as long as it is descent and constructive.

How do you define failure & success?
Two faces to one coin as they say; if you didn’t taste failure you will not feel the success.

As every human being you like and dislike, who do you like/dislike to work with?
Well I liked working with Hany Ramzy and Hamada Helal a lot, I feel internal peace while I am with them and disliked working with some female stars but I won’t tell names as I do respect them but didn’t enjoy working with them.

If we were still ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, what do you think would have happened to the art in Egypt?
I believe that the art’s future under their rule would have been so dark and bad and you can say no future, so thanks God for what happened.

Away from directing, what do you enjoy doing?
I love soccer and a big fan of El Ahly club and love to listen to great Fairouz and Shereen Abdel Wahab. I would like to thank you for this interview and wish Egypt all the best...