Mohamed Khan


Mohamed Hamed Hassan Khan was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He was a pivotal member of the "1980s generation" in Egyptian cinema, along with directors such as Khairy Beshara, Daoud Abdel Sayed, Atef El-Tayeb, and Yousry Nasrallah. His main aesthetic credo, in line with directors from his generation, was a reinvigorated realism seeking direct documentation of everyday life in Cairo, beyond the walls of the studio.

Biography

Khan was born on 26 October 1942 in Cairo, Egypt to an Egyptian born Italian mother and a Pakistani father. After completing his high school education in Egypt, he went on to study at the London School of Film Technique between 1962 and 1963. He directed several 8mm films. In 1963, he returned to Egypt and worked in the script department of the General Egyptian Film Organization. Between 1964 and 1966, he worked as an assistant director in Lebanon. He then moved again in England, where he wrote his book "An Introduction to the Egyptian Cinema", published by Informatics in 1969. He edited another Book entitled “Outline of Czechoslovakian Cinema”, which was also published by Informatics in 1971.
His 1983 film The Street Player was entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. According to a book issued by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in December 2007, Khan's Ahlam Hind we Kamilia is one of the 100 landmarks in the history of the Egyptian cinema.
He has one daughter, Nadine, a film director, and one son, Hassan, an artist and musician. He was married twice first to Zeinab Khalifa, a well known Egyptian Jeweller and then to Wessam Soliman, an Egyptian scenarist who wrote three of his movies: Banat Wust el-Balad, Fi-Sha'et Masr el-Guedida, and Fatat el-Masna'.

Filmography, screening and prizes

Short Films
Feature Films