In a production office situated, appropriately enough, behind the screen at the Ramses Hilton cinema, I’m introduced to Egypt’s latest star of the movie firmament. Not an actor, though she probably could have been, blessed with good looks and a lively presence, Sandra Nashet has joined the elite of successful new film directors with her hit of the season, ‘Lei Khaletni Ahabek’(Why Did You Make Me Love You?)
She’s small, kind of bouncy and looks absurdly young, with a fresh face devoid of make-up – hardly out of school you might think. In fact she’s coy about divulging her age. Let’s just say, under thirty.
The first thing you feel when talking to her is that this is a person who gets things done. Clear, matter-of-fact and not given to waffle, she answers most questions in a single sentence – rather a disadvantage to an interviewer trying to sift under the surface. She’s charming, easygoing, but very much to the point.
Although ‘Lei Khaletni Ahabek’ has brought her into the public eye for the first time, Sandra’s actually no novice behind the camera, despite her young age. Her first movie, ‘Mabrouk wa Bulbul’ came out four years ago and she’s also directed several notable video clips for the music industry. But the combination of finding a winning formula and a mix of popular, "happening" faces, plus her successful collaboration with producer Weil Abdullah, resulted in her hitting the jackpot this time around. (On its opening two days over the Eid holiday, ‘Lei Khaletni Ahabek’ grossed LE 630,000, out-grossing all other new releases.)
Being young and female, and striking out in the potentially tough, male-dominated milieu of the film industry doesn’t seem to have fazed Sandra one bit.
"Of course, when people first meet me they say ‘Oh but she’s a woman, she’s very young,’ and so on. But once they see how hard I work and get on with the job, they’re OK about it. It’s never actually been that big a deal."
Sandra was born in Egypt and her parents are Syrian and Lebanese – "with a bit of French mixed in". Neither has any connection with the entertainment business; her father runs a packing firm.
She attended the French Sacre Couer school in Cairo, where her affinity with drama showed at an early age. She began performing in, and then directing, school plays. "We would pick a book and dramatize it, then choose the actors and perform it on stage. It was an all girls school, so we’d play both the female and male roles."
After school she attended the cinema institute, while studying at the French Faculty of Cairo University. "My parents weren’t too keen on me entering the entertainment field at first, so I obliged them by simultaneously getting a proper degree."
She did a lighting course at a film school in California and another film course in France. Then, three years after finishing university, she jumped more or less straight into features, working as assistant director on a Yousri Nasrallah movie. "I didn’t like being an assistant at all. Right away I knew I wanted to direct myself."
The video-clips followed, shooting for such prestigious names such as Mohamed Fouad and Ghada Rageb. Music video directors are notoriously image rather than content-centred when they begin directing feature films, and Sandra has been the recipient of such criticism, though she strongly refutes the accusation.
"The attention to detail I put into the look of my movies has nothing to do with working on video-clips," she says. "Perhaps it helps give good training for producing beautiful lighting, but that’s about all."
‘Lei Khaletni Ahabek’ actually came about by accident as, at the time, Sandra was supposed to be preparing for something else entirely. "The actor I had lined up for that project couldn’t meet the schedule. And as it happened, I was really interested to work with this group of actors (Karim Abdel Aziz, Mona Zaki, Halla Shiha and Ahmed Hilmy). These are four young people who are really popular right now and work well together. The idea for the story came first, then I got the actors together, then the script was written...in that order. I love the process of working with actors. For me it’s like a kind of magic.You have these people in front of you and you can put them in different positions and tell them what to do, and it all comes together."
The way she says it, it sounds rather like having real live dolls to play with. I can just imagine Sandra as a child, lining up her toys and giving them imaginary roles.
"My cinematic influences have all been from old black and white movies, Egyptian and Hollywood. That’s the style I love. The way they dressed, the way the scenes were set up. But in terms of modern cinema, I love the Italian-American directors like Scorcese and Coppola."
Speaking of style, ‘Lei Khaletni Ahabek’ was, unusually, filmed entirely on location, which meant an extensive search for suitable venues for each scene.
"It was difficult to find the right places. And when we’d finally succeed in persuading a restaurant or office to hire us a space, they complained bitterly afterwards, saying ‘never again!’ because it was so disruptive. Frankly, shooting makes a mess. But I was determined to do it that way. I love to use real locations because it gives the movie a real sense of place. This is Cairo and we want it to look like Cairo."
Although you may be excused if you don’t recognize the city you know and love in its incarnation here. Indeed, Sandra’s vision of her home town has met with a certain amount of criticism. Since when was Cairo ever so pristine, so chic, so modern? Its image here has been synthetically manufactured to eliminate the reality of dirty streets and the physical struggle of day-to-day life, not to mention the economically-challenged majority. The only people appearing on screen are from a social class who in fact represent the tiny minority. (One scene, in which a lone family from the lower end of the social spectrum turn up as guests to an extravagant high-class wedding, is used to send-up class differences.)
Sandra, however, remains defiant on the subject, pointing out that there have been quite enough Egyptian films from the school of realism depicting the city complete with all its squalor and grime. Back in her favourite era of the thirties and forties, she points out, it was common to base movie plots around small circles of the rich elite.
"In those days, even when they were shooting a scene in a street café or on a farm, the director would have the street cleaned up, or the cows washed before the cameras rolled. I don’t see anything wrong with that." Her film, she hopes, will make Cairenes proud of their city. "I wanted everyone – even the extras – to look nice. To be wearing nice clothes – even to smell nice. In fact, that was it: I wanted the movie itself to smell nice!"
One thing that can’t be argued with are the lengths to which Sandra went trying to produce a work of quality in terms of production values. The sound was produced in Belgium, and there’s none of the rough editing and dodgy sound effects too common in many modern productions. (In one memorable scene from ‘Hamam Fi Amsterdam’ not only was the clinking of plates and forks so loud you couldn’t hear the dialogue, but the boom was clearly visible, hovering in the top of the shot.)
"I really wanted to make sure of the details and work for a high-quality finished product. I hate it, for example, when you watch a party scene and everyone’s drinking the same drink, whether it’s orange juice or whisky, and the amount in the glass is always the same, without any ice! It’s just not realistic." Granted, there’s something of a contradiction here. The details of each scene are faithfully made true, while the overall view is something of a fantasy. But hey, you could argue, that’s what movies are all about.
Just one thing though – there’s no reference to sex, not even so much as a kiss, throughout the film. This chaste vision of romance was also deliberate. "It makes you dream more if you don’t actually see it up there on the screen," says Sandra. "Besides, the subject matter here didn’t require a kiss. It’s a really romantic story, but there was no place in it for anything physical. I think we’ve become too fixated on the physical expression of love in movies."
In fact she’s right that kissing scenes would have been inappropriate to the plot. The film that her’s is loosely based upon, ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, starring Julia Roberts, is similarly devoid of any steamy bedroom antics. Despite the two films’ similarities Sandra denies that ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ was anything more than a starting-off point. As with many western films that turn up here in an Egyptian version, the differences are cultural. For instance, the concept of a best friend being of the opposite sex in the first place would be difficult to reproduce realistically here. Likewise, the Rupert Everett character from the original, the gay colleague – an essential aspect of the plot that gives rise to most of the comedy in the Hollywood version – is here transcribed to Ahmed Helmy’s role as merely eccentric and extremely short-sighted; although why he was made so, not even Sandra seems to have a clue.
But this is Egypt and her movie has its own cultural reference points. For example, Nagua Fouad turning up as herself to dance – or, as it happens, to not dance – in the wedding scene.
"We could have used Dina or someone else, but we wanted Nagua Fouad precisely because she’s a legend, and because she’s not dancing any more. What could be more prestigious at a wedding?"
At the end of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, Julia Roberts steps graciously aside for her rival. Not so Mona Zaki, who’s character is a little more complex. As she snaps the wedding picture (she’s supposed to be a photographer), she contrives to put herself, photographically at least, in the place of the bride. It’s the parting shot and, as Sandra explains: "It leaves the story open-ended. I wanted to give the feeling that although she’s accepted the marriage, she’s still pursuing him. She’s saying, OK he’s yours for now, but who knows, perhaps I’ll have him in the end! There needs to be that element of hope for her."
For the runaway success of the film in cinemas all over town credit must also go to its efficient distribution, though Sandra hinted at problems over conflicting interests with the new media giant Hermes, who are distributing a rival release. She claims that the resulting battle has pushed her movie off the screen in at least one cinema.
"I’m very concerned by the implications of any company having such power, not to mention a monopoly in owning so much archive film footage. Weil Abdullah, my producer, has already turned down offers to buy his material under considerable pressure."
Though she’s currently taking some time off, Sandra already has her next project lined up. It will star Karim Abdel Aziz once again. "The girls just go crazy for him! That makes him a good choice, plus he has great screen charisma."
As we finish the interview, Karim himself breezes in. He’s every bit as affable and charming as he appears on screen. I’m in the middle of asking Sandra what she likes to do for relaxation, so she appeals to him for the answer. "Cooking?" he suggests. It seems rather unlikely – and not a little bit sexist – but she’s quite happy to agree. "I’m a very normal type of person. My ambition is to have a husband and some kids, just like everyone else."
Let's not hold our breath though. I predict that the lure of the director's chair will be keeping her busy for a while.
