Egypt | 1953-11-14

Mohamed Al Sobky is an Egyptian producer whose films have fared consistently well at the box office despite attracting negative reviews from critics. Al Sobky states that his works seek to engage the populist classes from which he himself originates, adding that he knows how to connect with that cohort of society. Critics, however, attack his work and label it as base. Al Sobky's career began in 1985 when his brother opened a video club atop the butcher shop owned by his father, Hassan Al Sobky, in the Dokki district of Al Giza. The video club focused on promoting foreign movies in Egypt. Mohamed Al Sobky teamed up with his brother and in a few years the two became joint owners of one of the largest film distributors in the Middle East. Initially Mohamed worked as a producer in concert with his brother but they recently decided to separate their activities so that now each brother owns his own producing label.