Director Mohamed Diab got started working on dramas, making his feature debut with the 2010 film Cairo 678, about “three women and their search for justice from the daily plight of sexual harassment in Egypt.” That was followed by the 2016 film Clash, which takes place entirely inside a police van and shows what happens when “a number of detainees from different political and social backgrounds are brought together by fate”. In 2021, he made Amira, which showed that a “girl’s world is turned upside down when she learns the man she grew up idolizing is not her real father.” Then he shifted gears, directing four of the six episodes that made up the Marvel / Disney+ series Moon Knight. And now Deadline reports that Diab has signed on to direct a sci-fi thriller called Leap.
Scripted by Source Code writer Ben Ripley and produced by The Picture Company, Leap is “a high...
Scripted by Source Code writer Ben Ripley and produced by The Picture Company, Leap is “a high...
- 11/17/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
This fall, Arab filmmakers will be out in force at such prestigious international fests as Venice and Toronto. Venice alone boasts six features from first- and second-time Arab directors in its official sections, plus an additional six works-in-progress at its Final Cut Production Bridge. Meanwhile, Toronto opens with “The Swimmers,” a drama from U.K. helmer Sally El Hosaini based on the journey of Syrian sisters and Olympic hopefuls Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled the war in their home country for Germany. Yusra competed in the 2016 and 2021 Summer Olympics. An additional six Arab films will screen at the Canadian fest.
Dek: Arab filmmakers embrace genres and issues as festivals and distributors take notice
By Alissa Simon
This fall, Arab filmmakers will be out in force at such prestigious international fests as Venice and Toronto. Venice alone boasts six features from first- and second-time Arab directors in its official sections,...
Dek: Arab filmmakers embrace genres and issues as festivals and distributors take notice
By Alissa Simon
This fall, Arab filmmakers will be out in force at such prestigious international fests as Venice and Toronto. Venice alone boasts six features from first- and second-time Arab directors in its official sections,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
It is no spoiler to say that Marvel Studios’ “Moon Knight” is unlike anything attempted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008’s “Iron Man.” Not only is it Marvel’s first Disney Plus series that doesn’t focus on already established characters, the first four episodes of the show, which Variety has seen, contain not a single spoken reference to the MCU. No one talks about Thanos or the Snap, Spider-Man or Wakanda. There are no mentions of the Avengers or the Eternals, infinity stones or multiverses. And not a single familiar face — not Doctor Strange or Wanda Maximoff, Captain Marvel or Shang-Chi — makes an appearance.
When the team behind “Moon Knight” set out to make it, however, walling off the MCU “wasn’t a goal, ironically,” says director and executive producer Mohamed Diab.
“Moon Knight” follows a nebbishy London museum gift shop employee named Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) who...
When the team behind “Moon Knight” set out to make it, however, walling off the MCU “wasn’t a goal, ironically,” says director and executive producer Mohamed Diab.
“Moon Knight” follows a nebbishy London museum gift shop employee named Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) who...
- 3/31/2022
- by Adam B. Vary
- Variety Film + TV
Since Mohamed Diab’s career in the entertainment industry has been spent behind the camera, many people may not recognize his face. Still, however, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of his work. In 2010, he earned international acclaim for his directorial debut, the film Cairo 678. Since then, he has been working hard to share stories with the world and that work has come with lots of rewards. Diab is the director of the upcoming Disney + series Moon Knight which is based on the Marvel Comics character. This project has the potential to take Mohamed’s career to entirely
10 Things You Didn’t Know about Mohamed Diab...
10 Things You Didn’t Know about Mohamed Diab...
- 3/30/2022
- by Camille Moore
- TVovermind.com
“Moon Knight” director Mohamed Diab originally pitched the Disney+ series to focus heavily on Egypt.
Why? Because to him, the nation and culture have been “inauthentically portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” as Diab told SFX Magazine.
The most recent example of such “orientalism,” as Diab pointed out, was seen in Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” which featured depictions deemed by some as stereotypes in a sequence supposedly set in Egypt.
“You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us,” Diab said. “I remember seeing ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us. You had a sheik — that doesn’t make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert.”
Diab directs four of the six episodes...
Why? Because to him, the nation and culture have been “inauthentically portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” as Diab told SFX Magazine.
The most recent example of such “orientalism,” as Diab pointed out, was seen in Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” which featured depictions deemed by some as stereotypes in a sequence supposedly set in Egypt.
“You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us,” Diab said. “I remember seeing ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us. You had a sheik — that doesn’t make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert.”
Diab directs four of the six episodes...
- 3/24/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Marvel’s upcoming series “Moon Knight” features four of six episodes directed by Mohamed Diab, the Egyptian screenwriter and filmmaker best known for his feature directorial debut “Cairo 678” and his 2021 Venice world premiere “Amira.” The Marvel series incorporates elements of Ancient Egyptian mythology in telling the story of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), a mercenary who becomes the conduit of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. It was of utmost importance for Diab that the series did right by Egyptian representation.
“In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” Diab recently told SFX Magazine. “It’s always exotic – we call it orientalism. It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top.”
Diab pointed to “Wonder Woman 1984” as a recent example of Hollywood failing Egypt. The...
“In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” Diab recently told SFX Magazine. “It’s always exotic – we call it orientalism. It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top.”
Diab pointed to “Wonder Woman 1984” as a recent example of Hollywood failing Egypt. The...
- 3/23/2022
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
Mohamed Diab is an Egyptian screenwriter and filmmaker and the mastermind behind lauded films like “Cairo 678” (2010) and slightly gimmicky “Clash” (2016) that is completely set inside a police van during the riots. His latest work “Amira” (2021), done through a co-production arrangement of three countries, while set in Gaza Strip, also came with significant festival reputation (it premiered at Venice) and several awards (most significantly from Rome International Film Festival). Most recently, it was screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival.
Amira is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
The titular character played by Tara Abboud is a teenage girl interested in photography who thinks she can be sure of her roots. Her father Nawar, whom she dutifully visits in the notorious Meggido prison in Israel (where he serves the life sentence for terrorism) has the status of a Palestinian freedom fighter. Nawar’s family takes care of Amira and her mother...
Amira is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
The titular character played by Tara Abboud is a teenage girl interested in photography who thinks she can be sure of her roots. Her father Nawar, whom she dutifully visits in the notorious Meggido prison in Israel (where he serves the life sentence for terrorism) has the status of a Palestinian freedom fighter. Nawar’s family takes care of Amira and her mother...
- 3/18/2022
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Eric Lagesse, the CEO/president of Paris-based arthouse distributor and world sales outfit Pyramide Films, received the Industry Tribute Award at Cairo Film Festival on Friday. Variety spoke with him about his relationship with Arab cinema, and the state of the independent film business in France.
How do you feel about receiving this tribute?
It’s great, but I have had a year to get used to it. Because of the pandemic, I didn’t receive it last year, as planned. Nothing major has changed in the meantime. I am still very fond of Arab and Egyptian films. We are now working with a new generation of films and filmmakers like “Amira” (pictured), which played in the Horizons Competition at the Venice Film Festival this year.
What is your connection to the Arab film world?
We have been collaborating with the Arab world since the beginning of Pyramide. The first...
How do you feel about receiving this tribute?
It’s great, but I have had a year to get used to it. Because of the pandemic, I didn’t receive it last year, as planned. Nothing major has changed in the meantime. I am still very fond of Arab and Egyptian films. We are now working with a new generation of films and filmmakers like “Amira” (pictured), which played in the Horizons Competition at the Venice Film Festival this year.
What is your connection to the Arab film world?
We have been collaborating with the Arab world since the beginning of Pyramide. The first...
- 12/5/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
Since 2012, more than 100 children have been conceived using the smuggled-out sperm of incarcerated Palestinians — or so it is claimed by the end titles of Mohamed Diab’s “Amira.” But here, this phenomenon, the mechanics of which make for a genuinely riveting first act, is somehow judged not dramatically fertile enough to carry an entire film. Instead, Diab’s increasingly tin-eared, hysterical story, co-written with his siblings Khaled and Sherin Diab, devolves into a socio-politically dubious and narratively nonsensical muddle, which may actually be a disguised blessing. The portrait of Palestinian identity it finally presents is so superficial and regressive that its saving grace is that it’s also very difficult to believe.
Proud “daughter of a hero,” 17-year-old Amira (Tara Abboud) knows she was conceived in this unconventional manner. Her freedom-fighter father Nawar married her mother Warda (Saba Mubarak) while already serving out his sentence in an Israeli prison. Husband...
Proud “daughter of a hero,” 17-year-old Amira (Tara Abboud) knows she was conceived in this unconventional manner. Her freedom-fighter father Nawar married her mother Warda (Saba Mubarak) while already serving out his sentence in an Israeli prison. Husband...
- 10/28/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Return of the studios, UK and Italian presence, a new section… and what about Covid?
Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera and Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto today unveiled the line-up of the 78th edition (September 1-11).
The talking points to emerge include fewer female directors than last year, what the Covid-19 safety measues will be, the return of the studios and Netflix, and tentative awards season chatter.
Hotly-tipped 2020 titles find a festival home
Like Cannes, Venice will showcase a raft of films that have been waiting in the wings since early 2020 due to the pandemic. Notably, French director Stephane Brizé’s Another World,...
Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera and Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto today unveiled the line-up of the 78th edition (September 1-11).
The talking points to emerge include fewer female directors than last year, what the Covid-19 safety measues will be, the return of the studios and Netflix, and tentative awards season chatter.
Hotly-tipped 2020 titles find a festival home
Like Cannes, Venice will showcase a raft of films that have been waiting in the wings since early 2020 due to the pandemic. Notably, French director Stephane Brizé’s Another World,...
- 7/26/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Egypt has had a serious problem with sexual harassment for a long time: Speak to nearly any woman in the capital and you’ll hear horror stories of verbal and physical abuse. Just last year, Cairo topped a survey of the world’s most dangerous cities for women, and the third most dangerous for sexual violence. Public attention was drawn to the issue in the waning days of the Hosni Mubarak presidency before the 2011 Revolution (it’s the subject of the 2010 feature “Cairo 678”), thanks to brave protesters who’d had enough. After the Revolution, activists were inspired to rally for change, yet when Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected president, there was widespread fear that his conservative brand of Islam would roll back any gains made.
This is where Samaher Alqadi’s misleading documentary “As I Want” begins. The film opens in black and white with the director,...
This is where Samaher Alqadi’s misleading documentary “As I Want” begins. The film opens in black and white with the director,...
- 3/17/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
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