Mona Zaki in her most difficult role… and critics retreat after the first show

The new Egyptian film “The Woman” achieved a remarkable presence in its world premiere at the Marrakesh Film Festival, where it received long applause from Arab and foreign stars and filmmakers, in appreciation for its narration of Umm Kulthum’s biography in a visual and human style. Despite the prior criticism directed at Mona Zaki because her features were far from the “Eastern Planet”, the film received widespread praise after its release, dispelling many of the first negative impressions.

In a symposium within the festival, Mona Zaki considered the role “the most difficult” in her career, noting the challenge of embodying a character the size of Umm Kulthum, stressing that director Marwan Hamed gave her the confidence to complete the work, and that she focused on the human dimension away from artistic symbolism. In turn, writer Ahmed Murad described the film as an “exceptional” project, given the difficulty of writing a work about a beloved character on an Arab and international level, revealing that its production cost amounted to eight million dollars.

The film received praise from prominent Moroccan critics who praised its treatment of the epic and melodramatic dimension of Umm Kulthum’s life, especially her period of isolation after the July Revolution. It is scheduled to begin its commercial screening in Egypt on December 12, with the participation of a wide range of Egyptian movie stars alongside Mona Zaki, including Karim Abdel Aziz, Nelly Karim, Ahmed Helmy, Amr Saad, and Aser Yassin.