In 2010, Okasha left our world, leaving behind a great artistic legacy. The audience was saddened by the loss of someone who spoke about them honestly, and death was ruled by his pen stopping writing, before the audience was surprised by the movie “The Green Door”, which will be released in the coming months, written by Osama Anwar. Okasha, to give the viewer a new and perhaps one last chance to enjoy Okasha’s unique pen.
In an exclusive interview with “Sky News Arabia”, Egyptian director Raouf Abdel Aziz reveals the scenes of the “Green Door” industry journey, and how the idea of using the script of the late writer Osama Anwar Okasha came about.
unforgettable dream
“It was a dream that always haunted my mind.” This is how director Raouf Abdel Aziz began his talk about his quest to direct and produce a work written by the late Osama Anwar Okasha.
Abdel Aziz added to “Sky News Arabia”: “Like most drama and film makers in Egypt, I had a dream of going back in time in order to cooperate with the late Osama Anwar Okasha, who started his artistic career as a novelist, so I thought of turning one of his old novels into a cinematic scenario.” .
And the Egyptian director added: “I found that my wish could be fulfilled, after the family of the late writer told me that he wrote the script for a movie called (The Green Door) in the late eighties, and modified it more than once, but there was no chance for this movie to come to light, so I found it an opportunity for cooperation. With the late Osama Anwar Okasha without going back in time, and I decided that the film project would be my production and direction, hoping that we would present a work worthy of the name of the late writer, especially since his cinematic works are few in number because of his preference for writing dramas.
work industry
Raouf Abdel Aziz explains that he started preparing for the movie “The Green Gate” at the beginning of this year, saying: “With the first two pages of the script, I could not leave it without reaching its last page, and I was amazed at Okasha’s ability to read the future and the details of Egyptian society.”
Okasha wrote the script for “The Green Gate” nearly 30 years ago, and the years following the writing of the film witnessed many societal changes, so it was important to know how Raouf Abdel Aziz could overcome the “difference in time” crisis.
Abdel Aziz says: “The screenwriter has (the right to speak) in the cinematic work, and in the case of (The Green Gate), we are talking about one of the giants of writing in the history of Egypt, so we preserved the dramatic principles of the script and the dramatic line of the work, especially since the script dispelled the time difference crisis. Between writing and producing, my job is to express the story visually in a manner befitting Okasha, who has worked with a number of great directors.”
The Egyptian director also indicates that nearly 80% of the film’s scenes have been filmed, and that it will be released in the coming months, whether at the end of this year or the beginning of 2022.
It is worth noting that the movie “The Green Gate” stars a number of distinguished actors, such as: Iyad Nassar, Sahar Al-Sayegh, Khaled Al-Sawy, Mahmoud Abdel-Mughni and Bayoumi Fouad.
Big challenges
The movie “The Green Door” has many challenges, including the automatic comparison that the audience will make between the film and Okasha’s previous works, and the other challenge is that the audience is accustomed to following Okasha’s writings through dramas, so the film experience will be relatively new.
In this regard, Raouf Abdel Aziz says: “The artwork is not compared, but it is evaluated, and it is a different experience from the prevailing experience, and we hope that it will receive the support of the public, to encourage other makers to have similar experiences.”
And he added: “We are not afraid of these comparisons, and I think they are a bit illogical, and I repeat that our first goal is to create a work worthy of Okasha’s name, and to take advantage of the enthusiasm of the film team positively, to bring out the best of each of us.”
Raouf Abdel Aziz also points out that Osama Anwar Okasha wrote the script for “The Green Door” for its cinematic production, and amended it more than once, so the audience will be in front of a work that is no less magical than Okasha’s dramas at the writing level.
At the conclusion of his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, Raouf Abdel Aziz wished that the “Green Door” experiment would succeed and be admired by the audience, so that a smile would be drawn on the face of the able writer Osama Anwar Okasha in his grave.
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