Ashraf Fahmy (; 25 August 1936 – 25 January 2001) was an Egyptian film director, active in the Egyptian film industry since the late 1960s. He was credited with launching his career and directing his first feature film (''

The Killers The Killers are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After the band went through a number of short-term bas ...

'' – '' Arabic: القتلة'') with the lead role played by the leading film star

Salah Zulfikar Salah El-Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar (, ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a Egyptian National Police, police officer, before becoming an actor in 1956. He is regarded as one o ...

, making a huge commercial success. Fahmy is a daring director frequently seen in

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

worldwide, in addition he wrote the script of three films including (Until The End of Lifetime – '' Arabic: حتى آخر العمر ''), which is considered his most memorable movie.

Early academic life

Ashraf Fahmy earned a bachelor's degree of arts (History major) from the

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

in 1961, then he graduated from the Egyptian High Cinema Institute in

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

(first class) in 1963 to start his career in the

Egyptian cinema The Egyptian film industry is today based mainly in Cairo, which is sometimes referred to as Hollywood on the Nile, Hollywood of the Middle East or Hollywood of the East, despite having its beginnings in the city of Alexandria in the early 20t ...

, after that he studied Directing at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

from 1964 until 1967.

Starting as a director

Fahmy worked as a director at the "National Center for Documentary Seetma", he directed his first short film; ''A New Life'' and was awarded for this film at "

Dok Leipzig DOK Leipzig is a documentary film festival that takes place every October in Leipzig, Germany. It is an international film festival for documentary and animated film founded in 1955 under the name "1st All-German Leipzig Festival of Cultural an ...

film festival", then worked as an assistant to

Fatin Abdel Wahab Fatin Abdel Wahab (; 22 November 1913 – 12 May 1972) was an Egyptian film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the ...

, Abduel Rahman Khamisi and

Youssef Chahine Youssef Chahine ( ; 25 January 1926 – 27 July 2008) was an Egyptian film director. He was active in the Egyptian film industry from 1950 until his death. He directed twelve films included in a list of Top 100 Egyptian films published by ...

, then he directed his first Feature Film

(1971).

Personal life

Ashraf Fahmy was born and raised in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, he was a son of an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

father of a high-class family of Cairo and a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

mother, got married twice and has one son Mostafa Ashraf Fahmy and two daughters Jala Fahmy from a different mother and Ingy, He died in the early 2001's during an open heart surgery leaving a legacy in Egyptian cinema.

Cinema

Since his first feature film (

''–''

Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian, or simply as Masri, is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic variety in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The esti ...

: ''القتلة'') which was starred by Egypt's influential movie star

earning him huge box office success in Fahmy's debut. His films of the 70's, 80's & 90's gave him a reputation as a director of thrillers. He was involved in the Cinema Council Adarhmassh in 1969 and then nominated as chairman of the board of directors of Studios, Production and High investment in 1977. throughout his career, he directed, wrote and produced over 50 feature films.

Awards

Fahmy was honored by Egyptian, Middle eastern & International Film Festivals. His most notable award was for ''A New life'' at the

film festival of

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Filmography

*Writer: ##Execution of a Judge (1990) ##School Teacher Assassination (1988) ##Until The End of Lifetime (1975) *Producer: ##The Unknown (1984) ##The Housemaid (1984) ##The Investigation is still ongoing (1979) *Director: 50 Films

Films

References

Sources

*https://web.archive.org/web/20150713163252/http://www.africapedia.com/TOP-AFRICAN-FILM-DIRECTORS-IN-ALPHABETICAL-ORDER

*http://www.elcinema.com/person/pr1096229/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Fahmy, Ashraf 1936 births 2001 deaths Cairo University alumni Film directors from Cairo University of California alumni