Cairo-

"I am a young man applying for the baccalaureate this year. I am tall, my waist is very thin, my chest is suitable, and my legs are strong and suitable, my color is not the same as in my picture because I am a little darker than the picture. Sometimes you find me imitating the voice of Youssef Wehbe and sometimes you find me imitating the voice of Umm Kulthum, and this is a characteristic that I think is rare.” With these lines, the young Muhammad Anwar El-Sadat described himself in a letter he sent to director and producer Aziza Amir, looking for an opportunity to work as a new face. The late president was enamored with the art of acting, Rather, he dreamed of becoming a professional actor in his youth.

As Sadat, whose birthday falls today on December 25, 1925, says in an article published by Al-Gomhouria newspaper, and republished in the Good Morning magazine in December 1996, that he discovered the hobby of acting in himself early in 1936, when he was a student At Rukaya Al-Maaref Secondary School, he joined its representative band, and soon became the supervisor of the band, and prepared the novel that this band would present at the end of the school year.

Sadat says, "Since the dawn of my youth, I have felt a strong affinity for art and artists, especially acting, and I have many stories in this field."

audition

In his sessions, Sadat did not deny his search for the opportunity to be an actor, as he narrated in his autobiography that his friends admired his acting talent, so he imitated them in their session the voices of army leaders and famous art stars.

Al-Sadat also tells that he submitted to a performance audition in the movie “Tita Wong”, after he read an advertisement in which the artist Amina Mohamed - the aunt of the artist Amina Rizk - asked for new faces, so the young Sadat went to the headquarters of the producing company in a building on Ibrahim Pasha Street, where he met the artist Amina Muhammad with about 20 young men who applied for the same paragraph, she chose only two of them, Sadat was not among them "because his features were not cinematic."

According to what Sadat recounted in his book "30 Months in Prison", he and his colleagues in prison published a newspaper entitled "Al-Hankara wa Al-Munkara", and established a radio station inside the prison with some prisoners. He wrote its daily program on the prison notice board, and presented two paragraphs himself: A children's talk by the virtuous educator Baba Anwar" and "A modern song by Al-Majarati the beggar Anwar Al-Sadat".

The late President Sadat is an actor who lost his way to the presidency of Egypt (Al-Jazeera)

Dramatic rich personality

In her report in Al-Ahram newspaper, critic Ola El-Shafei believes that the personality of the late President Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat is rich in drama, because of the distinctiveness of his features and body language, and also for his psychological makeup that was formed as a result of the events he went through in his life.

Al-Shafi’i adds that Sadat’s talent benefited him during the stage in which he disappeared after escaping from prison, when he hid in various professions such as porter and driver, as he used to take for himself in each town in which he lived a different character and form.

Art critic Tariq El-Shennawy believes that Sadat was a lover of art and music. He began his life with attempts to delve into the world of acting, as he was a first-class artist and writer, writing articles that carry a sense of humor.

In his memoirs, Sadat tells that he and his colleagues staged a play about Harun al-Rashid in prison.

The comment of journalist Rashad Kamal, in Sabah Al-Khair magazine, was that Sadat is only satisfied with the heroic role, even if his audience is a group of political detainees.

Sadat represented by others

More than a decade after Sadat's departure, his personality became a rich material for film and drama makers to present to the public, and major artists competed to present the personality of President Sadat in television series and films in the nineties, so the artist Abdullah Ghaith presented him in the series "The Fox" (1993) starring Nour Sharif The series presented one of the Egyptian General Intelligence operations.

In the movie “The Spy Hikmat Fahmy” (1994) starring Nadia Al-Jundi, the artist Ahmed Abdel Aziz presented the role of Sadat, and in the movie “Nasser 56” (1996) the role was played by the artist Mahmoud Al-Bazzawi in front of the artist Ahmed Zaki, and it was presented by the artist Gamal Abdel Nasser in the movie A Woman Who Shocked the Throne of Egypt” (1995) starring Nadia El-Gendy, and Talaat Zain in the movie “Gamal Abdel Nasser” (1999), starring Khaled El-Sawy.

Mohamed Nasr embodied Sadat's personality in 3 series: "Nightingale", "Seddik al-Omar" and "The Community", and his role was embodied by the artists Mahmoud Abdel-Mughni and then Ahmed Badir in the series "Egyptian Papers" in its three parts.

In 2012, Muhammad Ramadan presented the character of Sadat in the series "Carioca", and Khaled Al-Nabawi also presented him in the play "Camp David", which was shown in the American capital, Washington.

Sadat's days

The artist Ahmed Zaki remains the best person who played Sadat’s character in his movie “Sadat’s Days” (2001), which was also produced and directed by Muhammad Khan for a script by writer Ahmed Bahgat, in which Zaki presented the path of the late president from his inception until his assassination, reviewing the most prominent stations in his life, the most important of which is the July Revolution / July, the October War and the Camp David Treaty. Actors Mona Zaki and Mervat Amin embodied the role of Mrs. Jihan El-Sadat, and the film is one of the signs in the history of modern Egyptian cinema and the most important roles of Ahmed Zaki.