Chawki Mejri (, November 11, 1961 – October 10, 2019) was a

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

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 film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, noted for his films realisation in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, best known as the director of the ''Kingdom of Ants'' movie.

Biography

Born November 11, 1961 in

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, he is a former student of

Sadiki College Sadiki College, also known as ''Collège Sadiki'' (, "El-Sadqiya High School"), is a ''lycée'' (high school) in Tunis, Tunisia. It was established in 1875. Associations formed by its alumni played a major role in the early constitutionalist movem ...

, he took his master's degree in cinematography from the

National Film School in Łódź National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

in 1996. Chawki spent most of his career in Syria and then in Egypt, where he became known for his dramatic television films including short films, yet in 2012 he directed a feature film about the Palestinian cause ''Kingdom of Ants'' which enumerates the history of a family during the 2002 Palestine events, and highlights the difference between the reality and the dream. On October 10, 2019 Chawki died of heart attack in a hospital 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 ...

Personal life

He was married to the Jordanian actress

Saba Mubarak Saba Ahmed Soliman Mubarak El Siouf (; born April 10, 1976, in Anjara, Jordan) is a Jordanian actress and producer. She graduated from Yarmouk University in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in Theater acting and Directing. In 1998, she started her a ...

, with one son.

Filmography

Feature film:

Awards

International Emmy Awards The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sc ...

(2007) *

Adonia The Adonia (Greek: ) was a festival celebrated annually by women in ancient Greece to mourn the death of Adonis, the consort of Aphrodite. It is best attested in classical Athens, though other sources provide evidence for the ritual mourning of ...

award (2008 and 2009) * Officier (2016) and Commander (2019) of the Tunisian Order of Merit

References

Tunisian film directors Alumni of Sadiki College Łódź Film School alumni 2019 deaths 1961 births {{Tunisia-bio-stub