Abla Kamel expressed her gratitude to everyone who called for honoring her at the next Cairo Film Festival, and the artist – who withdrew from the world of art 5 years ago – said that she did not think that the public still remembers her, and stressed that her special circumstances do not allow her to attend the festival's activities.
The Egyptian singer spoke in a phone interview with the program "The Last Word" on the channel "ONTV", in her first response to the calls made by artists to honor her at the Cairo Film Festival, which was initially issued by director Yousry Nasrallah and actress Menna Shalaby.
Abla Kamel has not participated in any artistic work since the fifth part of the series "Chain of Blood" was shown in 2018, and is known for her refusal to appear in the media in any way.
Previous invitation
May 2022 witnessed popular and public calls on social media, in what appeared to be a summons to the artist Abla Kamel after a single television interview was shown to her, which soon turned into the most circulated. This rapid spread drew attention to the feeling of cruel alienation of Egyptians after the screens surprised them with artistic and media faces that do not express them, nor the system of values engraved in their hearts.
Egyptians looked around and did not find their children on the screen as they used to, they did not find Abla Kamel, who belonged to every Egyptian family, sister, aunt or daughter, the representative of Egyptian values and features disappeared in the Parliament of Art, so they summoned her through an old television interview.
Large technical balance
What Abla has achieved in her artistic career is almost the greatest asset that an actor or actress has received in the history of Arab art, not because of the many awards she has received, but because of that love and respect and allowing her to be a member of every Egyptian family and missing her when she is absent or absent what she represents.
Coincidentally, when she was a student at the Faculty of Arts, she took to the stage, to say one sentence as a compliment to a colleague, so she discovered her passion and decided to continue, to receive the next academic year the Best Actress Cup for University Theater.
Upon graduating, Abla married her classmate, actor and academic Ahmed Kamal, gave birth to twins Zainab and Fatima, and hired a nanny to help her, especially with her daily work in theater.
Abla performed her role on stage every day in the play "A Goblin for Every Citizen", and the nanny sat with the two children in the garden of the "Vanguard" theater. Abla cried as required to perform the role, but the children heard the crying and also cried, "Come, Abla." Abla left the stage and ran towards her two children, shouting, "My children, people."
Director Youssef Chahine had then started a new phase and decided to present the film "Goodbye Bonaparte", and used to look for new talents in the framework of preparation for each upcoming film, and on the stage of the vanguard Abla caught his full eye and chose her for the role of "Leila" in the film.
As "rehearsals" began before filming, Shaheen suspended the job, saying, "I don't like acting." Abla was performing in a theatrical way, so she stopped and learned her first lessons, and then collaborated with her in his next film "The Sixth Day", which co-starred Dalida and Mohsen Mohieldin.
Then came her chance with the stature of a play, Mohamed Sobhi, who presented her in the role of "Sunnia" in the play "Point of View" and pushed her to comedy in her spacious world, and she remained for 5 years presenting the role, which became a launching pad for her and turned it into a true prophecy for everyone interested in cinema in Egypt.
Abla met the giants of cinema in Egypt, and presented a performance that cannot be said to be good only, it differs qualitatively from the usual classical performance according to the prevailing standards, and perhaps that amazing spontaneity that characterizes Abla is what made her roles difficult to repeat, she is Abla Kamel in all roles, but each role does not carry from its predecessor only that honesty and very close to the reality of the character's performance in life itself.
Hysteria
The film "Hysteria" is one of the most prominent and delinquent cinematic stations in Abla's career, during which she met for the first time the late star Ahmed Zaki, and because Abla knows the value and stature of Ahmed Zaki, she felt the anxiety and fear that always accompanies her in all her work, but that anxiety was doubled during filming.
Abla embodied the role of "Wedad", who loved "Zain", the musician and singer roving, and in clear violation of custom and tradition, she declares this love, and chases her beloved in the departments and metro stations, and talks madly to her imaginary daughter "Sesame", and announces the restoration of the initiative to the loving heart and not to the man or woman, the performance of the half-crazy loving girl in "Hysteria" was more than spontaneous and more than wonderful.
Joy thief
Abla gave all the creators in cinema inspiration that is almost a departure from the law of cinema imported from the West according to its system, and no one tried to "Arabize" or "Christianize" it, as she presented in the film "The Thief of Joy" with director Daoud Abdel Sayed the role of the night girl.
Daoud and Abla held working sessions to discover the space that should be presented to an Arab audience in the context of the film, so that the girl of the night, forced by circumstances to this work, came without a single scene that could be indecent or embarrassing; Abla presented the night girl in the role of a human being first and convinced everyone that there is no logic in presenting the details of the work "Night Girl" as long as the audience knows the profession.
Fatima Koshari
Abla Kamel participated in many television series such as "Layali Al-Helmiya", "Al-Shahd wa Al-Damoua", "Hawanem Garden City" and "Raya and Sakina". Although many Egyptian actresses played the role of "The Mother", "Fatima Koshari" in the series "I will not live in my father's djellaba" turned into an artistic state that pushed the spontaneous actress into a space that was unique to her away from the usual standards of performance, and was critically classified outside the scales, and critics invoked the old prophecy as she would be the successor to the lady of the Arab screen, Faten Hamama.
Egyptian society celebrated "Fatima Koshari" as never celebrated actress before, and turned the character that is supposed to imitate the reality of the situation in society to a model imitated by mothers in raising their daughters and preserving their children, and the media tried to deal with her personally in interviews, but Abla vowed herself from the beginning not to turn or change and to be faithful to her nature, which refuses to pay the tax "stardom" including the fabrication and interference in personal life, and refrained from the media except from a few dialogues do not exceed The fingers of one hand are on a journey approaching 50 years.
My aunt France
Despite her brilliance in television works and her entry into hearts from the widest doors, the distinctive performance of Abla Kamel made her presence in each film a registered mark not only for the audience's demand for it, but for an independent artistic state within the work itself, so the new generation's use of Abla Kamel in a series of films that began with "Al-Lambi" was not strange.
She presented "the mother" in Al-Lambi, and the doctor who re-assembles the head of Al-Lambi in the body of the officer who died in a car accident in "Elly Bali Balak" and then "Kalam Mama" in the experience of a collective female championship with Menna Shalabi, Maha Ahmed, Ahmed Zaher and Ghassan Matar, and presented in the same cinematic context roles characterized by warmth and spontaneity in the films "Sayed Al-Emotional" and "Baltia Al-Aima" and "My Aunt France", which carries in its details a prophecy of the January revolution, which came as a direct result of the siege hit by political and economic corruption Despite Abla's calm in her ordinary life, her performance of this role in the film was so brilliant that some believed that a shift had occurred in the actress herself.
Abla Kamel separated from her first husband, actor and academic Ahmed Kamal, but the relationship remained elegant and in a framework of mutual friendliness, and she married the late actor Mahmoud Al-Jundi and separated from him after less than two years of marriage.
Abla wore the hijab and became an eyeball in her works in light of the violent transformations of Egyptian drama in recent years, but the public searched for her and demanded her through social media longing for her and for her honesty, spontaneity and rationality.