El Gouna Festival to Commemorate Ihsan Abdel Quddous

El Gouna Film Festival 3rd edition, which takes place on September 19, will hold a retrospective exhibition to commemorate the centennial of one of Egypt’s most influential figures in the literature field, veteran writer and novelist, Ihsan Abdel Quddous.

The festival will run until September 27 at El Gouna Resort-town in Red Sea governorate.

The opening ceremony will witness many surprises, including those who will present it, which includes four artists, including Egyptian actor Karim Kassem, and Turkish-Egyptian descent actress Rosaline Elbay, according to FilFan.

It was established on September 22, 2017, to underscore the role cinema plays in promoting cultural interaction and to highlight the awareness of different cinematic voices through encouraging dialogue and by building bridges of creative intellect.

Ihsan Abdel Quddous (1919 –1990)

Ihsan, born on January 1, 1919, was an Egyptian writer, novelist, journalist, and editor in Egypt's Al Akhbar and Al-Ahram newspapers.

Abdel Quddous is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films.

In 1944, he started writing film scripts, short stories, and novels. He later left his law career to focus on his literary career.

Abdel Quddous became a distinguished journalist in the Al Akhbar newspaper, a few years later, where he worked for eight years, then he worked in the Al-Ahram newspaper and became its editor-in-chief.

The novelist painted women as symbols of sacrifice in the Egyptian society which was why women were the central theme of his literary works.

He wrote more than 60 novels and collections of short stories, which influentially contributed to bringing change in the conventional concepts in Egypt.

Several of his novels have been made into TV and radio series, and film adaptations, including five, were turned into TV series, nine were adapted into a radio series, ten were adapted into TV miniseries, and 49 novels have been made into films.

Abdel Quddous’s works have also been translated into several foreign languages including the English, French, German, Ukrainian, and Chinese languages.