Tamer El Said (Arabic: تامر السعيد, born 1972) is an Egyptian filmmaker. He wrote, produced and directed numerous films including Take Me (2004), an award-winning documentary about five friends who unwittingly became political prisoners in Morocco, and the short film On a Monday (2005) on an old married couple who rediscover their relationship. His first fiction feature In the Last Days of the City was shot in Cairo, Berlin, Baghdad and Beirut and premiered in 2016 at the Berlin International Film Festival. He is co-founder of several independent initiatives in Cairo, including Cimatheque Alternative Film Centre, Mosireen, and Zero Production.
Early life
Tamer El Said was born in August 1972 in Cairo, Egypt. His father Ahmed El Said wrote for the 70s famous children's radio program, A Song and A Tale. In spring 1991, El Said was detained for six weeks by State Security after participating in a students' strike in a demonstration against the participation of the Egyptian troops in the First Gulf War. He studied Film Directing at the High Institute of Cinema, graduating 1998 with Honourable Mention, and received his diploma in 2002.
After graduating, he worked for a couple of years as 1st AD on some of Egypt's bigger feature films, then spent a year directing high end commercials while teaching at both the High Institute of Cinema and the Actor's Studio in Cairo. In 2002 he took on the role of Senior Producer and Artistic Consultant for Nile Productions, moving across to Hot Spot in Dubai in 2003. His time as Senior Producer at Hot Spot saw the company expand dramatically, producing 250 documentaries in 58 countries, and winning several international awards.
Career
Between 1994 and 2004, El Said wrote, produced and directed numerous award-winning shorts and documentaries including On a Monday (2004) and Take Me (2004). In 2006 he co-wrote the feature film Ein Shams (Eye of the Sun, 2008) with Ibrahim El Batout, and later started filming a long-term project about the village of Aytaroun which was destroyed in the 2006 war in Lebanon. In 2008, El Said began working on his first feature film In the Last Days of the City. Shot in Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut and Berlin, the film is on the lives of a group of friends from Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon have been shaped by their cities of birth and the instability of their region.
In 2007, El Said founded Zero Production, an independent production company in Cairo. Zero Production supports independent filmmakers in Cairo and the region whether directly producing, lending equipment or offering work space. El Said is currently in the process of setting up, with Khalid Abdalla and others, Cimatheque, an alternative film centre that aims to offer services and space to help develop and incubate the independent film movement in Cairo through building networks, sharing resources and building an infra-structure for the alternative film platform.
El-Said is member of National Culture Policy Group, an initiative launched in 2009, with the aim to propose a plan of action to better organise cultural endeavours in Egypt.
Filmography
In the Last Days of the City, Fiction, 118 min, 2016
On a Monday, Fiction, 10 min, 2005
Take Me, Documentary, 52 min, 2004
Music of the nets, Documentary, 26 min, 2000
Crisscross, Fiction, 20 min, 1998
Like a feather, Fiction, 12 min, 1996
Charlie, Fiction, 8 min, 1995
18 September, 12 min, 1994
In the Last Days of the City (Akher Ayyam Al Madina) "In the fading grandeur of downtown Cairo, Khalid, a 34 year old filmmaker is struggling to make a film about a city in which everything he loves is leaving him. He is about to be kicked out of his house, the woman he loved is emigrating, and the death of his father has awakened memories of life before childhood death of his sister when Cairo and his country seemed a brighter world. Now, all around him, dreams as much as buildings are disintegrating, but the need to keep going has not. Capturing the stories of his friends at home, and abroad, in Beirut and Baghdad and Berlin, Khalid learns how to live and keep creating, in the face of ruin, of war, and disappearing hopes."