Ashraf Fahmy (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: أشرف فهمي 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 band formed in Las Vegas in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After going through a number of short-term bass players and drummers in t ...

– '' Arabic: القتلة'') starring the leading film star

Salah Zulfikar Salah El Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar ( ar, صلاح ذو الفقار; ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a police officer in the Egyptian National Police, before becoming an ac ...

making 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 in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

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 degree of Arts (History major) from the

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

in 1961, then he graduated from the Egyptian High Cinema Institute in Giza (first class) in 1963 to start his career in the

Egyptian cinema The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also referred to as Hollywood on the Nile. Since 1976, the capital has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the Intern ...

, after that he studied Directing at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

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 year 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 and Doc ...

film festival", then worked as an assistant to

Fatin Abdel Wahab Fatin Abdel Wahab ( ar, فطين عبد الوهاب; 22 November 1913 – 12 May 1972) was an Egyptian film director. He directed 52 films between 1949 and 1970. His 1961 film ''Wife Number 13'' was entered into the 12th Berlin International Fi ...

, Abduel Rahman Khamisi and

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 ...

, then he directed his first Feature Film

(1971).

Personal life

Ashraf Fahmy was born and raised in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, 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 years of ...

father of a high-class family of Cairo and a Turkish mother, got married twice and has one son Mostafa Ashraf Fahmy مصطفى أشرف فهمي and two daughters Jala Fahmy جالا فهمي 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 ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...

: ''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

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

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

Television

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