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Asma El Bakry (28 October 1947 – 5 January 2015) (something written as Asmaa El-Bakri and other variations) was an Egyptian film director, author and illustrator. She was born in Cairo, moving to Alexandria as a young girl with her mother and brother. She attended the renowned French school,
Notre Dame de Sion and Lycée, and earned a BA in French literature from the
University of Alexandria
Alexandria University ( ar, جامعة الإسكندرية) is a public university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fouad University (the name of which was later changed to Cairo University), becoming an indepen ...
in 1970.
El Bakry worked in the film industry for many years, including as an assistant to noted Egyptian director
Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine ( ar, يوسف شاهين, Yūsuf Shāhīn ; 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 that were listed ...
, as well as with
Saad Arafa and
Khairy Beshara
Khairy Beshara ( ar, خيري بشارة ; born June 30, 1947 in Tanta, Egypt) is an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since the 1970s. He is considered one of the Egyptian directors who re-defined Realism in Eg ...
.
She also worked as an author, illustrator and as a production manager.
[
As a production manager, El Bakry made about twenty documentaries in Egypt for the ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. She also made a number of short films and worked on
Raymond Depardon
Raymond Depardon (; born 6 July 1942) is a French photographer, photojournalist and documentary filmmaker.
Early life
Depardon was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, France.
Photographer
Depardon is a mainly self-taught photographer, as he bega ...
's
Une Femme en Afrique. She made her first feature as a director in 1991, ', which she also co-produced.
It could be argued that most of her documentaries reveal deep interest in Egyptian history and a keen desire to shed light on its past civilizations with the ultimate aim of instructing the new generation. In ''Dahsha'', for instance, she traces the history of wooden boats used by the ancient Egyptians until modern times. In ''El Zaher District'' (''Hay el Daher''), she sheds light on the history of that district in Cairo, which was established by the
Sultan Zaher Bibars in the thirteenth century.
Her fascination with the Islamic civilization is evident in her work on the
Fatimids and the
Ayubbids.
While filming ''Mathaf al Iskandariya'', a documentary about the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, El Bakry filmed the recovery of what were thought to be remains of the
Pharos of Alexandria. After finding that works to stabilize the adjacent
Citadel of Qaitbay
The Citadel of Qaitbay (or the Fort of Qaitbay; ar, قلعة قايتباي) is a 15th-century defensive fortress located on the Mediterranean sea coast, in Alexandria, Egypt. It was built from 1477 to 1479 AD (882–884 AH) by Sultan Al-Ash ...
were destroying ancient artifacts, she went public with her concerns, forcing the Egyptian authorities to stop their works.
Early career life
Asma El Bakry did not have the support of her family when it came to her filmmaking career. Her mother felt that reading books was more cultivating for Asma than was watching films. Thus, El Bakry was on her own in respect to her interest in a film career, which started at a young age.
When she first started in school, she would cast her classmates and play the role of the director herself. During her last year at university, she attended the shooting of the film ''A House Made of Sand'' (''Bayt min al-rimâl'') in 1972. El Bakry was a swimming champion, and she volunteered to do the difficult stunt of pretending to drown in the rough, cold sea in place of
Poussi
Poussi, Poussy or Boussy ( ar, بوسي) real name Safenaz Moustafa Adry ( arz, صافيناز مصطفى قدري; born 26 November 1953) is a Cairo-born Egyptian actress.
Filmography
* ''Shey Min El Khouf (“ A Taste of Fear “'', 1969) ...
, who was the lead role. She volunteered to help in general, and got so caught up in the making of the film that she became an indispensable hand on location. It was meeting with
Abdel Aziz Fahmy, the film's Director of photography, which was to change the course of her life, for he was the one who helped her into the film business by allowing her to work as an assistant in his next film ''Strangers'' (''Ghorbâ''’), directed by Saad Arafa.
Filmography
References
Sources
* Hillauer, Rebecca. ''Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers''. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 2005. Print.
* "Asma El Bakri, AlexCinema." Asma El Bakri, AlexCinema. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakry, Asma El
1947 births
2015 deaths
Egyptian women film directors
20th-century Egyptian women writers
21st-century Egyptian women writers
People from Alexandria
Lighthouse of Alexandria