The Egyptian committee for wages of artists at the Egyptian Broadcasting company has agreed to increase the wage of Egyptian actress Maali Zayed to 15 thousand Egyptian pounds per episode. The increase of the committee came with the participation of Maali in the new television drama series “Blood and Fire”, which is scheduled to be aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
According to the Qatar based daily, Al Raya, Maali’s previous wage was 10 thousand EGP per episode and after she submitted a request for a raise, the committee agreed to give her an extra 5 thousand. The actress is currently shooting the scenes of the new series, in which she plays the role of a cold hearted woman who plants hatred in her son in order to take revenge against her husband’s killer.
Samir Saif directs the series and Egyptian actor Farouq Al Fishawi along with a number of other actors will costar alongside Maali.
A large crowd of Egyptian actors and actresses gathered at the first art exhibition "Al Wajh Al Akhar" (The Other Face) by Maali, which featured 22 oil paintings. Maali stressed that through her paintings, she was able to express her inner feelings and the way she looks at everything around her.
Zayed had been dedicating her time entirely to finish drawing her collection of paintings. “This work is one-man’s show while acting is a collective work. It is an idea, which one is responsible for in an attempt to interpret it in the form of symbols or message to be conveyed to the recipient. My first exhibition includes many paintings about hope, Palestine, motherhood, childhood, woman and others,” said Zayed
Maali’s last film “Anbar Wal Alwan” (Anbar and Colors) was a complete failure not achieving any viewer satisfaction leading her to a state of despair. After the film she decided she would halt all cinematic work and stick to the small screen.
Zayed has been away from cinema performance for a quite long time. She said, “cinema now faces a crisis of views and topics in addition to the damage which privatization has caused to it. Until the cinema problems are solved I shall continue working for the TV through which I play good roles bearing in mind that 75 percent of the audience watch TV. In the course of my artistic career and those of Laila Olwi, Elham Shahin and many more, the TV has introduced us to the cinema.”
The actress known for playing roles of villager women, said, “I like this role because it represents the middle class, which is very large. With my appearance typical of three quarters of women in Egypt who belong to this class, my performance of such role is enhanced. I want to interpret as much as possible the feelings of women from all sectors and aspire to do that throughout my life. My real enjoyment is to play roles for characters different from my personality.” - Albawaba.com
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
