The "leader" of Arab art, Adel Imam, devotes himself to his family life

Egyptian artist Adel Imam (Reuters)

Ramy Emam, the eldest son of Egyptian actor Adel Imam, announced yesterday evening, Saturday, January 20, 2024, that his father decided to devote himself to his family life with his grandchildren.

The statement - which was understood as a retirement announcement - came on the sidelines of the "Joy Award" festival in Saudi Arabia, during which Adel Imam was awarded an exceptional award in the name of "Leader of Arab Art", and his youngest son, the actor Muhammad Imam, received it.

Al-Zaeem has not presented any artistic work for nearly 4 years, when he presented his latest work, which is the series “Valentino,” directed by his son Rami.

Muhammad Adel Imam receives his father’s award within the activities of the “Joy Award” Festival (social networking sites)

With the retirement of Adel Imam, who was 83 years old, the curtain came down on an Arab artistic scene that began in 1962 at the university theater in Egypt, where university student Adel Mohamed Imam participated in performances alongside the great artists of that time, the most prominent of whom was Fouad Al-Muhandis, and then he moved to cinema. He participated in small roles, until the opportunity came to star in the play “I, He, and She” in 1964, and the movie “My Wife is a General Manager” in 1966, bringing the number of his works to 126 films, 11 plays, 16 television series, and one radio series, and then he retired.

60 years

No one has ever sat on the throne of stardom in Egypt and the Arab world for more than 50 years except the son of the sergeant, Muhammad Imam, who comes from the village of Shaha, in the Dakahlia Governorate in Egypt, and at a time when Egyptian films were distributed in the Arab world for a few thousand, it was the film that It bears the name of Adel Imam and is distributed for one million dollars.

Just as his comedic scenes and situations were widespread throughout Cairo, they can be observed in the streets of Upper Egypt, Rabat, Damascus, and Riyadh as an occasional feature in the regular conversations of the public, which contributed to writing the chapters of an Arab success story that is difficult to repeat.

Therefore, it is difficult to imagine the life of Adel Imam, who lived between the studios and the stage for 60 years. The “leader” was not just an actor who played his role in the play or movie and left, but he was the “dictator of the work,” its owner, and responsible for all its details, starting with choosing the text and the screenplay. The director, the actors, and even the details of the scenario during filming, and no one had the right to discuss it.

Beginnings

The true beginning of Adel Imam’s stardom coincided with the emergence of the economic and social results of what was called - at the time - “economic openness”, when Egypt began to witness a shift towards the idea of ​​quick profit, adventurers appeared, and the craftsmen and merchant class gained greater opportunities, while university graduates began to decline in terms of status. Social and economic conditions.

Behind the scenes of the movie “Peace, My Friend” with Adel Imam (left), Saeed Saleh (second left), and Sawsan Badr (social networking sites)

The young artist read the scene well, and participated in a group of works that confirmed his status as a distinguished actor, making his way towards stardom, despite his formal characteristics being different from those that a star should have, but the comedic color redeemed him, as he did not present himself to the public as a competitor to any... Among the first-class stars who are famous for romantic roles, such as Mahmoud Yassin and Hussein Fahmy.

The movie “In Search of a Scandal” was an attempt - timidly - to read the new reality in 1973, and as much as it was an attempt to laugh, it contained features of those characters who were very pretentious and lived in a major social lie that contradicted their completely different reality.

In the movie “The Wallet Together” in 1978, Adel Imam had managed to control the scene, and the new values ​​imposed themselves. He presented a model for a person who was a candidate for success under the new value system. The movie’s hero, “Atwa,” fails in his studies, so he becomes a professional pickpocket, and meets a colleague. He studies Shukri, who holds the position of director of a company, and promises to provide him with a job, but when he procrastinates, he steals his wallet, and finds in it documents incriminating Shukri and important figures in fraud and embezzlement operations.

The film's question - despite its simplicity - was very difficult, as a thief steals from a thief, so the poor viewer falls between two answers, both of which are disastrous.

School of rioters

The play “School of Troubles” did not go unnoticed in the history of Egyptian art or society, but rather left its effects on several levels, but the most important thing is that its first knight was Adel Imam, who made it his starting point as a star in the sky of art, and remained soaring for 50 years.

Through the play, a generation of stars was born, the first of whom were Adel, Saeed Saleh, and Younes Shalabi, and the three set off in a scene that was repeated 35 years later with the new generation of comedians, as through the movie “Ismailia I’m Going to Come” in 1997, Mohamed Henedy and Ahmed El Sakka were born.

After its tremendous success, the play turned into a social phenomenon, and the heroes’ “evil” spread on the tongues of the masses, but what was more dangerous was its spread on the tongues of school students.

The work was subjected to many accusations in Egypt, of causing corruption in education, degrading the teacher’s status and disrespecting him, but the matter was not that simple. The play - with its negative values ​​- touched a societal situation that helped it take off, and thus became a model of how art can be affected. Reality and reality is influenced by art.

Adel Imam drama

Before Mohamed Hosni Mubarak assumed the presidency of Egypt, the movie “The Suspect” was shown, directed by Samir Seif, who took off Imam’s comedy mantle, giving him another color, which was drama, tears, sadness, and some battles. Despite the great adventure, the movie achieved the paradox and made Adel Imam a comprehensive star. He is an actor who has the same dramatic potential as he has the ability to laugh.

The success of the movie “The Suspect” remained a rebirth, similar only to that which occurred when he collaborated with both the screenwriter Wahid Hamed and the director Sherif Arafa in the famous quintet “Playing with the Adults,” “Terrorism and Kebabs,” “The Mansi,” and “Birds.” Darkness" and "Sleeping in Honey", which gave his artistic career a different colour, especially after his lighter works in the first years, and the series "The Beggar", "The Halffoot" and "Bakhit and Adila", all of which achieved profits according to the standard of their time, but their artistic or social value has diminished. Be a topic of discussion.

A snapshot from the play “The School of Troubles” (social networking sites)

President of the Republic of Arts

If the true stardom of Adel Imam was born at the time of Mubarak’s assumption of power in Egypt, then each of them was the leader of a special space in the public sphere in Egypt, and while Mubarak was a political president, the authority accepted that Imam be artistically equivalent to the President of the Republic, and perhaps gaining this artistic leadership was not This was not only because of his play “The Leader”, but rather through the audience’s enthusiasm for his films.

The great actor made political statements that were not compatible with the trends of the active and active segment of the youth audience, and his relationship with his fans in recent years ranged between enthusiasm for his works, especially old ones, and aversion to statements that he did not like.

The torrent of rumors about “The Leader” rushed to its summit, when a naive rumor spread that the actor, whose wealth was estimated in media reports to not exceed 100 million dollars, expressed his willingness to pay off Egypt’s debts on the condition that his picture be printed on the Egyptian currency.

It is a rumor that - despite its naivety - indicates the transformation of Adel Imam in the popular imagination into a man who possesses capabilities exceeding the capabilities of a country whose population at the time exceeded 60 million, and whose debts exceeded 30 billion dollars.

Source: Al Jazeera