Nabiha Lotfy Dies, Aged 78

Documentary filmmaker and actress Nabiha Lotfy has died a few hours earlier, inside a hospital in Mohandessin area, aged 78. Funeral prayers will be held tomorrow Thursday, at Sayyeda Nafisa mosque.

Lotfy holds Lebanese citizenship, but has lived most of her life in Egypt. She studied at the American University in Cairo in 1953, where she was sacked due to her political activism, then moved to Cairo to join the Faculty of Arts, then the Hihg Institute of Cinema in 1960.

She graduated as a film director in 1964, becoming one of the first institute's graduates, and worked as an assistant director in numerous feature films, before focusing almost entirely on directing documentary films. She was one of the founders of the New Cinema Group in 1986, and worked in the Experimental Film Centre with Shady Abdel Salam. She wrote several articles about cinema, and was a member of the Arab Documentary Filmmakers Guild.

She also appeared as an actress in Daoud Abdel Sayed's " Rasa'el Elbahr" (Messages of the Sea), Ibrahim El Batout's " Ein Shams", and in the television series " Elkhawaga Abdel Qader", and the short film "Zeyara Yawmeya" (Daily Visit).