{"id":4830,"date":"2022-09-30T05:44:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T05:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/review-andor-might-test-star-wars-fans-patience-but-it-could-just-be-worth-it\/"},"modified":"2022-09-30T05:44:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T05:44:55","slug":"review-andor-might-test-star-wars-fans-patience-but-it-could-just-be-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=4830","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: \u2018Andor\u2019 might test \u2018Star Wars\u2019 fans patience, but it could just be worth it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nDUBAI: There are not many lives as full as Adel Emam\u2019s. Put it this way: The Dubai International Film Festival has given him a Lifetime Achievement Award twice. A legend of stage and screen \u2014 both big and small \u2014 Emam is the crown prince of Egyptian pop-culture, a comic and dramatic actor who has appeared in 103 movies and more than a dozen TV series over an astounding career that has lasted more than 60 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nAt 82, Emam may have taken a slight step back from the public eye, but the love the Arab world continues to show for him, and his influence on the generations of talent who grew up idolizing him, is as immense as it has ever been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEverything in the world changes. The rhythm of speech changes. Life becomes fast too. And believe me, you can fool some people all the time, and you can fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,\u201d Emam told Kuwait\u2019s Zaman TV in the 1970s. \u201cIt is honesty that determines career longevity, and an actor\u2019s esteem from his fans determines his continuation or his end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nAdel Emam with Hend Sabry in Marwan Hamed’s ‘The Yacoubian Building’. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nWhile Emam was waxing philosophical about another actor at the time, by his own metric it is his sincerity that has helped earn his following \u2014 both from those that watch his work, and those that have worked with him directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nHis straightforward nature and honesty have long been the key to his comedic voice, too, allowing him to tackle hot-button issues such as gender roles in society (1966\u2019s \u201cMy Wife, The Director General\u201d); terrorism and religious extremism (1979\u2019s \u201cWe are the Bus People,\u201d 1992\u2019s \u201cTerrorism and Kebab,\u201d 2006\u2019s \u201cHassan and Marcus\u201d); political corruption (2006\u2019s \u201cThe Yacoubian Building\u201d) and more, only come out the other side (mostly) unscathed. (Like many Egyptian celebrities, he has stirred controversy with his indelible satire, but no charges against him have ever stuck.)<\/p>\n
\nFor Marwan Hamed, Egypt\u2019s top modern director and the man behind Egypt\u2019s current all-time box-office champion \u201cKira & El Gin,\u201d there\u2019s simply no competition \u2014 there has been no bigger moment for him than collaborating on \u201cThe Yacoubian Building\u201d with the man known as \u201cAl Zaeem\u201d (The Big Boss).<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWorking with the Egyptian legend Adel Emam has been the greatest privilege I\u2019ve had in my career,\u201d Hamed tells Arab News. \u201cAdel Emam is my childhood, teenage, and all-time, hero. Working with him was a great moment, and to work with such a great man and artist in my first film was an exceptional honor for me.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHis humanity, generosity and love were the highlight of this experience, and personally I learned a lot from him, whether from observing him or from the words of advice that he gave me,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019m not exaggerating when I say that the whole experience is the most memorable I\u2019ve had, and every shooting day was full of value and true art.<\/p>\n\n\nEgyptian film star and comedian Adel Imam (L) applauds with his wife Hala al-Sharakani (R) the beginning of the first screening of his new film “Hello America” at the opening night 04 January 2000 in Cairo. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nIn \u201cThe Yacoubian Building,\u201d which became the most popular film in Egyptian history up to that point (a theme throughout Hamed\u2019s career) and the best-received performance of Emam\u2019s dramatic career, Emam cemented himself as Egypt\u2019s biggest star, regardless of genre. He also helped launch the career of his own son, Mohamed Emam, his co-star in the film and now one of the biggest stars in Egypt in his own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI love him so much. I admire him so much. He’s my idol,\u201d Mohamed told Arab News earlier this year, while admitting that it hadn\u2019t always been easy trying to build his own career. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to become an actor when your father is the biggest actor in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a big, big struggle at first. Slowly people grew to understand that I love cinema, that I don\u2019t do this just because my father is a big actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAs a public figure, Emam has long been humble in nature, rarely pointing to himself as a leader.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI am not a superstar, or a leader of any kind. There are no leaders in art. All I want is to use my talents to make people’s lives better, if only in a small way,\u201d he once said.<\/p>\n\n\nAdel Imam and Omar Sharif in 2008 at a press conference announcing their film ‘Hassan and Marcus.’ (Getty)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nThat, of course, is likely why people trust his opinions. Interviewers have often found themselves asking for his thoughts on political or social issues, looking to him for guidance in the debates of the day. And he invariably answers candidly \u2014 and often bravely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nIn those conversations, however, he does not see himself as anything more than a voice in the crowd.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe masses are the ones who move politics, and the problems of the masses are the things that move politics. It is not an individual who moves politics,\u201d he told Zaman TV.<\/p>\n
\nBorn in 1940 in the city of Mansoura in Egypt, Emam studied agriculture at Cairo University, where he lost interest in his studies and became intrigued by the art, literature and theater that his friends were introducing him to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI feel (acting is) in my blood,\u201d he said to Kuwait\u2019s Zaman TV. \u201cI love it, and my connection is always with people in the audience. In film, the camera enters the heart through the eyes. The more heart you see, the more honest the artist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nEmam studied agriculture at Cairo University. (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nAs popular as Emam is, there are many sides to him that are not common public knowledge. Compared to his contemporaries and co-stars such as Omar Sharif and Soad Hosny, his private life has remained relatively private. But those are the sides that his own son hopes to portray on screen someday, Mohamed told Arab News.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s another side to him that people don\u2019t see: The father. The man that I know best,\u201d he said. \u201cI would love to be able to tell that story myself someday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhile Emam may have slowed down, his career is still going strong. He last starred in the 2021 film \u201cBodyguard,\u201d and is set to star once again with his son in \u201cEl Wad W Aboh\u201d in the near future.<\/p>\n
\nAs for persistent rumors of his ill health or retirement, The Big Boss himself is here to put them to rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s a great feeling for a man to read his own obituary while he is well,\u201d Eman joked to ET Bil Arabi last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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