Birmingham film-maker Khaled El Hagar reaches an international audience

Dec 7 2009 By Roger Shannon

Mafeesh Gher Keda!/None but That!, a 2006 musical, follows the life of a single mother of three, who are  struggling and dreaming of riches.

The efforts of the mother Nahed bear fruit when her youngest daughter Dina succeeds in the glamorous world of show business.

But this success breeds jealousy, in-fighting and tension among the family members.

Loosely based on Brecht’s The Deadly Seven Sins, None But That! exposes  current desires for instant fame and wealth, at whatever the cost.

Hob El Banat/Women’s Love is a romantic comedy made in 2004 that both won seven major awards at the 2004 Egyptian National Film Festival and went on to become a major commercial success.

It is the story of three half-sisters brought together by the death of their mutual father.

While Cairo-raised Nada is a shy, deeply romantic soul longing for Mr Right and Alexandria-raised Ghada doesn’t like men, London-raised and educated university professor Ro’aya is looking for love now that her professional life is well established.

The three - according to their father’s will - must live together for one year in Cairo before they can inherit his considerable estate.

At first each claims her own space, but gradually as they get to know one another they discover how much they have in common. 

A Gulf Between Us is a 1994 drama in English set in 1991 London during the Gulf War.

When Hassan, an Arab student and part-time baker rents a room from Jewish Ruth in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, he is not looking for love but fall in love, he does.

The outbreak of the Gulf War, in which forces allied to the United States of America fight Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for invading Kuwait, makes things difficult for them.

This 50-minute film caused a storm in the Egyptian press when it was shown in Cairo in 1995 and Khaled El Hagar, who not only made but also played the main role, was accused of promoting normalisation with Israel and could not go back to Egypt until 2003.

Room To Rent, produced in the UK with American actress Juliette Lewis and French actor Said Taghmaoui, revolves around a young man’s pursuit of life, liberty, and a green card.

Ali, a young Egyptian screenwriter, is determined to succeed in London where he has been a student.  He loves the artistic and political freedom, the colours, the music, and the individualism.

But he has little money, his student visa is about to expire and he has been thrown out of his lodgings.  He moves in with a succession of eccentric and colourful London flat-mates: Mark, a photographer with a very individual style; Linda, a young, blonde, very sexy model and Marilyn Monroe impersonator, played by Juliette Lewis; and Miss Stevenson, who is convinced that Ali is the reincarnation of her long dead Egyptian lover.

All the while Ali is in search of an elusive British visa which unrepentantly leads to finding the love of his life. Room To Rent, a comedy drama in English made in 2001, was the first feature by writer/director Khaled El Hagar, who at the time was himself an Egyptian immigrant living and working in London. It has won several awards, four of them for Best Film.

Made in Germany in 2004 by Khaled El Hagar and Norbert Servos, Elements of Mine - a 20-minute modern drama dance in English - examines passion and sensuality for any age and in any sexual combination.

Khaled will be presenting all his films to the festival’s international audiences, and introducing them to his distinctive film making style dubbed “the Pedro Almodovar” of Arabic cinema.

The Rider Hagar family from Birmingham will be with him – his wife Janice Rider, an experienced and talented costume designer with many films and BBC dramas to her credit, and their son, Adam, a talented young actor and musician.

Both Janice and Adam were involved in the shooting of the Screen WM-backed pilot for Khaled’s Birmingham set film Sex For Happiness.

The Rider Hagar family are almost a film studio in their own right.

A film studio in Kings Heath? Now there’s a story to tell the Big Apple about.