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Egypt Celebrates Adel Imam’s 80th Birthday

Adel Imam | Asharq Al-Awsat
Adel Imam | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Egypt Celebrates Adel Imam’s 80th Birthday

Adel Imam | Asharq Al-Awsat
Adel Imam | Asharq Al-Awsat

The Arab world celebrated the 80th birthday of the iconic actor Adel Imam, dubbed El Zaeem, who co-starred in over 100 films, 11 plays, and 17 television series.

In celebration of his birthday, producer Rami Imam published a video of his father greeting and expressing gratitude to fans.

Social media was flooded with video clips of Imam’s movies and famous sayings that have become a generational treasure.

In 1988, Imam defied terrorists wreaking havoc in the Assiut Governorate in Upper Egypt and performed his “El Wad Sayed El Shaghal” play there.

Under a campaign entitled “An Age of Joy,” the MBC middle east broadcaster celebrated Imam’s legacy by showing an old interview the actor had shot with the journalist Mofeed Fawzi in 1993.

Music producer Tamer Morsi released a tune on the occasion. The song, called “Adel Imam Al Awal,” was performed by Mohammed Kilani, written by Ayman Bahjat Qamar and composed by Mahmoud al-Asili.

In honor and celebration of this legendary actor, OSN Streaming will showcase a collection of over 30 classic Adel Imam movies, including Al Bahth an Fadiha (1973), Al Halfout (1985), and Al Irhabi (1994). This collection will be viewed on Eid Al-Fitr.

Imam was born on May 17, 1940, in the village of Shaha of the Mansoura district in the Dakahlia Governorate.

Imam earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Cairo University, during which he became passionately involved in theatre productions.

He joined a television troupe in 1962 while still a student, and began starring in TV plays like “Ana wa Howa wa Heya” (He, She and I) and “Al Nassabin” (The Swindlers) which was performed at the Al Hakim Theater.

In the following years, Imam acted in several famous plays such as “Al Bijamma Al Hamra” (The Red Pajamas),” Fardet Shamal” (Left Shoe), and “Gharammiyat A’feefy” (A’feefy’s Love Affairs).

In the 1970s, he co-starred in the hit play “Madrassat Al Mashaghbeen” (Mischief at School), which were staged from 1971 to 1975, which were followed by play “Shahid Mashafsh Hagga” (The Witness Didn’t See Anything), and play “Al Wadd Sayyid Al Shaghal” which were staged from 1985 to 1993.

In 2000, the United Nations named him a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR.

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Varieties

1st Car Made during Soviet-era in Poland Goes on Display 73 Years Later

This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
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1st Car Made during Soviet-era in Poland Goes on Display 73 Years Later

This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

The very first car produced in Soviet-era Poland after World War II went on display Friday near Warsaw after it was tracked down in Finland during decades of searching and acquired after years of negotiations.

The chunky 1951 Warszawa M-20 bears the serial number 000001 it had when it left the FSO Passenger Car Factory in Warsaw on Nov. 6 of that year, exactly 73 years ago. It is a relic of the period of Poland’s post-war subordination to communist-ruled Soviet Union.

“We are extremely proud because now we count among the very few people in the world who have retrieved the very first vehicles of the series made in their countries,” said Zbigniew Mikiciuk, a co-founder of the private museum in Otrebusy.

The car was first given to the Soviet army marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who served as Poland’s defense minister after the war to seal the country’s dependency to Moscow. It eventually was discovered in the possession of the family of Finnish rally car driver Rauno Aaltonen, though the car's history in between remains unclear, Mikiciuk said.
It took more than two years of negotiations to obtain the vehicle from the Finnish owners, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

The car's original light color has been painted over with a shade of brown that was fashionable in the 1970s and bears marks of once-intensive use that the museum has preserved to keep it authentic, but it is still "holding together” and is “cool” despite its age, Mikiciuk said.
The now-defunct FSO factory intensively sought the original model during the 1970s in hopes of using it to mark an anniversary. The company even offered a new car in exchange for it, at a time when cars were still a luxury in Poland, but to no avail.
The FSO factory was originally built in the late 1940s to make Italian Fiat 508 and 1100 cars, but Soviet leaders in Moscow objected to the ties with a Western company during the Cold War. They ordered production to be based on the Soviet Union's Pobeda (Victory) cars, with Moscow providing the technology and the production lines.
The car now joins the museum’s many historic vehicles, including a 1928 US-made Oakland brought to Poland before the war by a doctor’s family and a 1953 Buick that belonged to Poland’s communist-era Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz. The former leader brought the car to Poland via the Netherlands apparently to avoid a direct connection to the US during the Cold War.
The museum also displays a Volvo that was used by Poland’s communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, known for having imposed martial law in 1981.
“We have been doing this for more than 50 years and we are not collecting cars you can see in the street but cars that have their history, their soul and their legend,” Mikiciuk said.
The museum owners hope that by displaying the initial Warszawa M-20 they can encourage members of the public to come forward and fill in more details of its history.