What We Know About Mena Massoud’s First Egyptian Movie

Aladdin’s magic carpet finally lands in Egypt to let Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud have his first ever role in a new Egyptian film, ‘Fi Ez El Dohr’. Since Aladdin was all about self-exploration and new beginnings, this new film couldn’t be a better match – it symbolizes new beginnings for a lot of the people involved.

First things first, this movie is produced by Adel Saad who has a brand new production company called Signal Films. It is also the first directorial debut to its director Marcous Adel. And lastly, it has the first screenplay written by actor Kareem Sorour, who has previously starred in many roles, such as ‘El Ab El Rohy’ (The Godfather), ‘Forsa Tanya’ and ‘Kalabsh’. He also stars in a recent TV series that is to be screened in Ramadan 2021, titled ‘Cairo-Kabul’.

More on what we know about ‘Fi Ez El Dor’’ is that:

• The cast officially includes Mena Massoud as the leading actor along with Mahmoud Hegazy, Mohamed Ezz, Mohamed Ali Rizk, Ahmed Gamal Said, Ehab Fahmy, and the two amazingly beautiful lead actresses, Hannah El Zahed and Myrna Nour El Din.
• For the thriller and action genre fans, get your popcorn and get ready to be extra thrilled because this movie’s genre is thriller-suspense, where the plot revolves around an international gang whose head is the one and only Mena Massoud and while his gang commit crimes across the world, and he finds himself caught up in romance.

The 29-year-old actor has a busy year ahead of him since he will also be involved in the second part of Aladdin, which will be released in 2021 after the huge success of the first part released in Summer 2019. In fact, 2019 was a busy year full of success for Mena, as well; he was chosen by the Minister of Immigration, Nabila Makram, to be the ambassador for the launch campaign ‘Etkalem Arabi’, which aims to maintain the Egyptian identity among expatriates, and Massoud looked like the perfect fit. The Minister of Immigration expressed her pride in Mena’s success, as well as his ability to speak Arabic very well when she met him. Moreover, Mena happened to be the international guest of the third edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), where he was interviewed by Egyptian actress Amina Khalil and expressed his desire to be in an Egyptian film.

Back to 2021, Massoud now has a leading role in an Egyptian movie as he teaches us once again that dreams do come true even without a genie. Massoud also joins the new Netflix romance-comedy movie ‘The Royal Treatment’’ as Prince Thomas alongside American actress Laura Marano as Isabella, a salon owner. The movie will be directed by Rick Jacobson and it portrays Prince Thomas, who is expected to marry a royal, but then he meets Isabella when she does his hair for the wedding and eventually, they fall in love.

You might not know this but Mena is not only an actor and traveler, but he even published a cookbook, titled ‘Evolving Vegan’ in September 2020, that consists of a selection of varied, tasty and affordable vegan recipes, inspired by dishes from around the world. Cairo-born, Canada-raised, and LA-based, Mena has always embraced his Egyptian identity. In his interview with Defective Geeks, he said, “I grew up in a culturally different household; my parents saw certain things differently than other people. I went to schools that had a significantly large Caucasian population and I feel very fortunate because I was able to compare that perspective with my family’s. It allowed me to create a wider world view on things. Also, at this point in my career being a visible minority in this industry still affects me.” Not only his Egyptian identity affected his life, but also his career. Another source of true inspiration was actually the genie from the 1992 Aladdin, Robin Williams. In an interview with The Hudsucker, Massoud explained how much his admiration to Robin Williams helped him to shift his career, from The University of Toronto and into an arts program at Ryerson University. And since then, Mena kicked off his acting career in 2011 with some supporting roles in a film called ‘What Happens Next’ as well as TV series, like ‘Poser’, ‘Nikita’ and ‘Combat Hospital’. Later on, he starred in many bigger roles over the years, such as his roles in ‘Open Heart’, ‘Jack Ryan’, ‘Reprisal’, ‘Strange but True’, and ‘Run This Town’.

By Nouran Hassan