There is no doubt that Egyptian cinema today has taken a new trendy look with high quality films and more gripping storylines due to the numerous extremely talented actors and directors. The unknown soldiers of the film industry are the screenwriters who usually do not receive a share of the glamour that actors get, although they are the masterminds who orchestrate every scene and line in the script. Mohamed Hefzy has changed all that as he has become the most sought after writer in the region with such blockbusters like Tito, Snake and Ladder, Malaki Eskendria, Tourbini, 45 days, and Fatah Einak under his belt.
A business man in the morning running his father’s factory and a busy writer/producer at night has left Hefzy out of time but full of ambition and love for the industry. Hence, his idea of forming Film Clinic came to him. “I set up Film Clinic to create a hub for talented, undiscovered writers and filmmakers who need a place to sharpen their craft and need a platform to launch them into the industry. Hollywood spends about 700 million dollars in developing screenplays, only 10% of which go on to get made. Over here, the screenplay and the director are often secondary to getting the right stars for a film, and more often than not, the good writers are hired to tailor films to the star’s taste. Even though this sometimes happens in Hollywood, most films in America are still only cast after the scripts have been developed. Having realized this problem, I saw a chance to redress that balance in the market by creating the Arab’s world first organized development pipeline for films and TV projects, said Hefzy.
The atmosphere in the Film Clinic office in Garden City remains a bustling hive of passionate creativity with extremely talented writers, actors and producers walking in and out through out the day. Hefzy currently offers workshops to at least 9 or 10 writers on various projects besides those who attend the educational workshops he teaches every year. Many of these students who have proven their talent and dedication have advanced professionally in some capacity on a screenplay either their own or a story that they were assigned to.
In some cases, a producer will come to ‘Dr. Hefzy’ with a script that needs doctoring. “We have done doctoring on films like Zarf Tarek, which went on to make 17 million EGP in the box office and has been the biggest film of 2006 so far, said Hefzy from behind his maroon desk in his posh office. He has also been successful at selling several scripts that were created by budding writers at Film Clinic to some of the biggest companies in Egypt and the Middle East.
Hefzy and his partners enjoy strong links and connections to the majority of producers, actors, directors, and distributors in Egypt and Internationally. Production is a natural progression for Film Clinic and that is why Hefzy and his partners formed Media Clinic, a sister company which owns an HD camera and an editing suite that his students have used to shoot their short films and other work that they have experimented with.
After being crowned as the best screenwriter in Egypt in 2005 at the Catholic Film Festival, Hefzy has become more dedicated than ever. In his opinion Egyptian cinema has become much better than it was five years ago. He proudly adds, “Not only are we producing more films, but more quality films as well. In my opinion, 2006 will see several films that will circulate International festivals. His response to the usual critique that the industry is conquered by a limited number of known actors that monopolize the silver screen is a very positive one especially to those new actors who find it very hard to penetrate the market and pick up good roles. “More importantly, we have witnessed the successful theatrical release of Awat Faragh, the first Egyptian film not to feature any known or familiar actors, let alone stars. I think time will prove it is the most important change in cinematic trends to happen over the last decade, added Hefzy. This is a signal that the age of the exclusively star-driven market may be changing to one that revolves more around ideas, quality, and freshness of the material rather than the names of the stars who appear in the films.
Today, he is busier than ever with several Film Clinic writers on many interesting projects including a film to be directed by Tarek Alarian. He also just finished writing two films that will be produced by Rotana, as part of a 4 film deal that Film Clinic signed with the giant Saudi entertainment company about one year ago.
Hefzy naturally has his eye poised on Hollywood. Last summer he produced his first documentary film with a Film Clinic writer which was screened in the New York Film Festival. He is currently working on two English language scripts that are relevant to the Middle East and may be his debut to the International market. 7 Dead Hearts will be co-produced by Rotana and a group of American producers. His other golden project remains Baghdad Bound: An Interpreter’s Chronicles of the Iraq War, a script based on a true story adopted from a novel written by one of his partners in Film Clinic. The film is in its development stage in Hollywood and will feature Western as well as Middle Eastern talent aimed to the International market.
Film Clinic’s mission is to become the number one development pipeline, providing film and television producers with top quality packaged projects. With teams of dedicated writers analyzing, reworking, and polishing every script before it reaches the screen, the company guarantees a level of excellence and entertainment value that will ensure that Egypt remains the queen of cinema it has always been throughout history.
Mohamed Fadel Fahmy is a writer-producer and has collaborated with Hefzy on several projects including his book-turned-screenplay for Baghdad Bound: An Interpreter’s Chronicles of the Iraq War which is currently being produced in Hollywood.
