Mahmoud Sabit – Guest at Arabian Filmdays 2013
Meet Mahmoud Sabit – Egyptian historian and relative of the Egyptian royal family. Sabit is visiting the festival with the documentary In Search of Oil and Sand, where he himself has the leading role.
Mahmoud Sabit has quite the unusual background. His father was a cousin of King Farouk in Egypt. After the rebellion against the royal family in 1952 his family fled to West Germany by spectacular means. A few years later Sabit was born. After a number of years in the United States Sabit moved back to Egypt in 1991.
Today he lives in his fathers former home in Cairo, a majestic villa in the heart of the city, remnants of a forgotten past. There he has a unique archive of letters between Egypt's former royalties, pictures his grandmother took during the rebellion in 1919, medals given by Napoleon himself, and ottoman uniforms from the Crimean War.
Not only is Sabit a talented and charismatic storyteller, he has also proven himself as an actor in the BBC series Egypt from 2005, where he figured in two episodes as two different characters – the archeologist Alan Gardiner and as a general. In the movie In Search of Oil and Sand, however, he appears as simply himself. He wishes to rehabilitate the bad reputation that has clung to the Mohammed Ali dynasty that ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1952. According to Sabit Egypt could have developed into a well functioning democracy if the royal family had continued to rule.
After the screening it will be possible to discuss these issues with Sabit himself. He is a passionate historian with vast knowledge that he shares enthusiastically. A true cosmopolitan we believe the audience will enjoy meeting.
In Search of Oil and Sand screens on Saturday April 20th at 18.00 and Sunday April 21st at 17.15.