From Chance Encounter to Scandalous Headlines: Hend Sabri’s Turbulent Journey to Stardom

Tunisian artist Hend Sabri recalls the beginning of her artistic journey, which spanned almost three decades, considering herself an actress born by chance, as she did not dream of entering the field, but aspired to be an ambassador.

Hind explained, during his symposium held as part of the El Gouna Film Festival, which is currently running until the first of next November, that he presented his first cinematic work when he was young, when a director saw him in Tunisia and told his father that he had a There was a cinematic face.

He added that in 1994 he received an offer from Tunisian director Mofida Tlatli to participate in the film “The Silence of Palaces”, which participated in many film festivals, “After this film, I returned to finish my studies. I felt that I will not continue in this field until I get an offer of artistic work, so the works continue and my artistic journey continues.”

He pointed to the great support he received from his family during that period, especially since he never studied acting, but taught himself without the help of some people, whether in Tunisia or Egypt.

He confirmed that the Carthage Film Festival had a great impact on his artistic career, because through it he met the director Enas El Deghaidi, who advised him to travel to Cairo and then nominated him to act in the film “Teenage Diaries”. First experience in Egyptian cinema.

lucky artist

Hend Sabri considered himself lucky to have collaborated with director Daoud Abdel Said on “A Citizen, an Informer and a Thief”: “I feel very proud of that experience, and I like Daoud’s writings, because they carry a vision. . and existential questions.”

He considered that “this film is one of the most memorable works, and the audience was surprised by the participation of the work of the popular singer Shaban Abdel Rahim.”

During the symposium, he touched on the film “The Yaqubyan Building”, which he described as a “miracle film”, saying: “This work involved a large group of artists such as Adel Imam, Nur al-Sharif, Yusra and Khaled. Saleh, and Screenplay and dialogue by Waheed Hamed Ala Al Aswani.

He said: “It was a dream for me to work with all these stars,” noting that he was in awe when he first met artist Adel Imam, who joked to him at the time: “You me and me. Love. Same day son,” referring to his son Muhammad who starred in the movie.

10 years of cinema

Hend Sabri said that he experienced the state of film activity for 10 consecutive years from 2001 to 2010, saying: “Egyptian cinema was very good at that time and the production was fast.”

He pointed out that director Hala Khalil’s 2004 film “The Best Times” was an important and defining work of his artistic career, saying: “He presented a completely new and different character for me.”

He added that the film “Al Jazeera” was also an important milestone, especially since the director Sherif Arafa made a good, huge film, as well as the film “Asma” directed by Amr Salama, during which he was attacked. .

He confirmed that he spent 10 years of his work in cinema, without expressing his opinion on any artistic work and responding to the instructions of the directors with whom he worked, as he considered himself “an artistic instrument in the director’s orchestra”. The current generation is more daring in this regard, so he suggests some people sometimes find it necessary to avoid expressing opinions about a director’s work, unless the actor has artistic reserves.

He explained that he wasn’t keen on the idea of ​​reshooting scenes, which would affect his performance, saying: “I gave my best performance and feeling the first time I shot the scene, but when I reshoot, the level of performance and feeling goes down. .”

TV drama

Hend Sabri attributed the reasons for not participating in television dramas at the beginning of his artistic career, on the advice of some directors, so his first series was “After the Separation” in 2008, “I discovered the need for presentation” works in parallel with television movies.”

He hinted that he had the idea to present “I Want to Get Married” in a television series, although that decision took a big risk at the time, as he had never presented a comedy work before, continuing, “The series was the subject of its first showing. To criticize and attack, but after that it achieved “big”.