One of the most prominent directors in the history of Egyptian cinema. He loved the Pharaonic civilization and was influenced by it, and his name was associated with many works that dealt with ancient Egyptian civilization, until he was called “the Pharaoh of Cinema” and “the Last Pharaoh.”

With his only feature film, “The Mummy,” he was able to reach the international level, as it was the first Egyptian film to be shown in all countries of the world. He was selected by the International Critics Association in Vienna as one of the 100 most important international directors. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his death, we present to you the most important milestones in the life of the genius filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam.

His birth and upbringing

Shadi Muhammad Mahmoud Abdel Salam Al-Sabah was born on March 15, 1930, in the city of Minya, into a family consisting of two brothers and one sister, and his father was a senior legal advisor. He grew up influenced by ancient Egyptian history and Pharaonic antiquities, which formed a historical reference for him in most of his works. He graduated from Victoria College in Alexandria in 1948, then traveled to England to study theater arts in 1949. He also joined the College of Fine Arts in Cairo and graduated as an architect with distinction in 1955. After graduation, he worked as a professor at the Cinema Institute, Department of Clothing and Decoration, in the period between 1963 and 1969. . He also worked as director of the Documentary Film Center at the Ministry of Culture in 1970.

His artistic career

Despite obtaining an excellent degree, Shadi Abdel Salam did not want to work as an architect, and chose to work in cinema. The beginning came in 1957 when he asked director Salah Abu Seif to work with him. He began his artistic career with the movie “Al-Fatwa,” where he recorded the time it took to film scenes.

After that, he continued to work with Salah Abu Seif as a decorator in the films “The Empty Pillow, The Dead End, and I Am Free.” He also worked with the most famous directors of the time, such as Henry Barakat and Hilmi Halim. He designed special decorations and clothing for a large number of films that were predominantly historical in nature, including “Wa Islamah”, “Cleopatra”, “Antar Ibn Shaddad”, “Almaz and Abdou Al-Hamouli”, “The Sins”, “Shafiqa Al-Qibtiyya”, “Rabaa Al-Adawiya”, “Bein Al-Kasserine”, “Amira Al-Arab”, “Amir Al-Dahaa”, “Adwaa Al-Madina” and “Al-Nasser Salah”. Debt".

In addition to decorating design, Shadi Abdel Salam worked as an assistant director on several films, most of which were by foreign directors. He participated in the Polish film “The Pharaoh” directed by Cavalero Wiec, “And His Islam” directed by Andrew Marton, the Italian film “Civilization” directed by Robert Rossellin, and the American film “Cleopatra” directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.

After assuming the position of director of the Documentary Film Center at the Ministry of Culture, Shadi Abdel Salam directed some short narrative and documentary films, including: “Complaints of the Eloquent Peasant” in 1970, “Horizons” in 1972, “Armies of the Sun” in 1974, and “Tutankhamun’s Chair.” in 1982, “Al-Ahram and Before” in 1984, and “Ramses II” in 1986.

A great success for the Mummy movie

In 1976, Shadi Abdel Salam wrote the film “The Mummy,” which deals with the issue of the theft of Egyptian antiquities. His idea was inspired by the discovery of the Deir el-Bahari cache, which contained the mummies of the greatest kings and pharaohs of Egypt. However, the film was not released until 1975, achieving great success. He won 16 international awards, including the Georges Sadoul Prize in Paris. It was also celebrated by international festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival. It was chosen third on the list of the 100 best Egyptian films. The World Film Foundation, founded by the great American director Martin Scorsese, also chose it as one of the most important films in the history of world cinema, and restored the original copy of the film after it was nearly destroyed.

A Pharaonic curse and an unfinished film

In 1983, Shadi Abdel Salam was reading about Tell el-Amarna, and he came up with the idea of the movie “Akhenaten,” which was supposed to deal with the story of the Pharaonic king not only during his reign, but also from the perspective of the era before and after it. The director chose the artist Mohamed Sobhi and the artist Nadia Lotfy to star in the film, and began implementing one of his most important dreams and projects ever, which took many years to prepare, because he stopped several times for various reasons, including rewriting the film’s script dozens of times before settling on the final version. And also because of the huge budget required to produce the film, which amounted to half a million pounds, which was a huge amount in the seventies. Shadi Abdel Salam tried to compile it from Egypt and France, but he died at that time and the film was not released. Which made some people talk about the curse of the Pharaohs that befell the film and caused it to be stopped.

He suffered from cancer and died

Shadi Abdel Salam was afflicted with bone cancer, and he traveled to Switzerland on a two-month treatment trip, during which he underwent many surgeries, before he passed away on October 8, 1986, at the age of 56 years.

Shadi Abdel Salam Museum

The Library of Alexandria established a museum for Shadi Abdel Salam’s collectibles, which was opened on March 15, 2005, to celebrate his diamond jubilee. The museum contains some of his personal belongings, the furniture of his office and his private library, as well as a group of paintings related to the decoration and clothing designs of his cinematic works, and a number of cinematic stills taken from the films in which he participated or directed, in addition to the medals, awards and certificates that he obtained during his life and after his death.

Attached to the museum is the “Afaq” hall, in which the films he directed and the films in which he participated as a clothing and decor designer are shown on a daily basis. It also displays some of the television interviews he gave, and some films and programs that dealt with his life and work.