Remembering Wahid Hamed on His 79th Birth Anniversary

The 79th birth anniversary of the late acclaimed Egypt's writer Wahid Hamed is observed on July 2.

Born in 1944 in Sharqia Governorate, he was hailed for his work in films and drama and won a number of awards including the coveted Golden Pyramid Award. He was often praised for beautifully capturing the nuances of human life and relationships in his works.

He moved to Cairo in 1963 where he started his college studies at Cairo University, in the field of Sociology. Then he got married to Zeinab Sweidan with whom he had his son, Marwan the talented director.

Furthermore, Hamed, who is regarded as the godfather of realist Egypt's cinema, established his writing career in the late 1960s after completing his university degree in sociology.

The film “Ahlam Elfata Altayer” (Dreams of the Fly Boy) (1978) dubbed his long-time collaboration with iconic actor Adel Imam and is considered his advanced movie script.

Hamed was one of the most successful, rare Egyptian screenwriters, with over 40 films and 30 television series to his name, according to critics.

Hamed is well-known for some of his remarkable works, such as the Al-Ghoul (1983), El-Le’eb Maa El-Kobar (1991), Al-Baree’(1985), Toyour El-Zalam (1995), and the screenplay for the critically acclaimed ‘The Yacoubian Building’ (2006), which Hamed’s son, Marwan Hamed, directed.

Moreover, he is known for joint collaborations and associations with legendary Egyptian actresses like Yousra and Elham Shahin.

He was the first Egyptian screenwriter to receive the Golden Pyramid Award for lifetime achievement in the cinema field in its new form, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the Egyptian government, in 2020, a quarter of a century after the prizes’ s founding.

In 2021, Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) honoured the legendary Egyptian screenwriter Hamed at the opening ceremony of its 42nd edition, held in December, with the Golden Pyramid Award for Lifetime Achievement for a career that spanned over five decades.

Hamed’s works have won numerous awards in festivals locally and internationally. Two of his iconic films were picked for the acclaimed list of the best 100 Egyptian films in the 20th century; Sherif Arafa’s “Al-Laab Maa al-Kobar” (Playing with Giants, 1991) and Atef El-Tayeb’s “Al-Baree” (The Innocent, 1985). The list was based on a survey of Egyptian critics under the supervision of the late Saad Eddin Wahba, president of CIFF’s 20th edition.

His death at 77 on 2 January 2020 left a gap in the Arab art world.