CAIRO – Acclaimed Egyptian screenwriter Mariam Naom spoke about her career in a presentation called “Beyond the Page” at The German University in Cairo this week.
Listen to the author read this story:
Naom has worked on a number of successful projects, most recently a TV series called “Lam Shamseya” the title alluding to Arabic linguistic concepts usually taught to young kids in school.
Aired during Ramadan, the series sparked nationwide discussions, both of outrage and support on social media, on the show’s center plot surrounding a boy victim of pedophilia.
The room was filled with many eager listeners – mostly students taking film courses – waiting to hear about Naom’s success story. However, her story is far from perfect.
Although Naom had set her sights on becoming an engineer, it wasn’t until she lived in Paris that she realized her passion was in the filmmaking world. She decided she wanted to come back to Egypt with a goal of showcasing Egyptian stories.
After attending the Cairo Higher Institute of Cinema for four years and graduating in 2000, she started working on her first film One-Zero, released in 2009. During the years leading up to its release, Naom would keep busy on other side projects to rely on herself financially and even spent a few years working in advertising.
Naom mentioned that in the past, she would work on one TV series per year. In 2015 when she started Sard Writer’s Room, otherwise known simply as Sard, Naom was able to take on more projects.
“The reason an independent writer’s room was created in the first place was firstly to maintain each writer’s literary rights,” said Naom. “That way all production companies are aware that with each contract, all rights of the writers involved are preserved. Another reason is that I knew I had been taught very well and I wanted to pass on the knowledge I was given, however I did not want to teach as an academic, so a way that could be done was through Sard itself.”
Naom’s success not only comes from her stories, but her ability to give weight to each character.
In response to a question on what has helped her experience, she said, “All the work I’ve done, even if it was not writing, were experiences that allowed me to grow faster, and be in contact with different types of people because the most integral part of writing is the understanding of humanity. If we did not have the ability to understand and study humanity, our writings will always remain surface level. If I have an idea or plot that has characters with shallow depth, one can be initially happy as they watch but they would quickly forget about it. The thing that creates impact and remains with a person are the characters of a story.”
A writer who is judgmental should reflect on themself and change that, Naom said.
“A core part of our work is loving our characters,” she said, “so working on ourselves makes us great writers or directors.”
Jana Salama is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
