Mohamed Diab In Conversation With Amr Salama On All Things Filmmaking

The third and last day of the 10th edition of RiseUp Summit ended on a high when Egyptian renowned filmmaker, Amr Salama took the stage for a conversation with Moon Knight director, Mohamed Diab.

As the crowd cheered, Salama kicked things off with a personal question. What’s the difference between Diab Ismailia, Cairo, and LA? The Marvel director responded by saying, “when I lived in Ismalia, I was a lost Egyptian, I wasn’t even sure that I had any creative talent. I was sure I didn’t want to be a cop or doctor so I aimed for the easiest thing, business school. I didn’t find myself easily, it took a lot to learn that I could be a filmmaker.” Diab went on to joke that he once opened a nail shop, “to this day, I still have all the nails.”

Getting to the core of the question, Diab explained that, “confidence is the key thing that changed in me. With time, I truly started believing that I can achieve.”

Switching the conversation to a creative gear, the Paranormal writer and director asked Diab about the film projects for which he only wrote the scripts, “with each film I have written, I had a totally different vision for it, no matter how successful its execution was and that’s what led me to direct.”

Following a thrilling discussion on directing vs writing and the international industry vs working in Egypt, Diab ended the talk by giving the audience his two cents on starting out in filmmaking. “You have to have your own voice. If you want to work in Hollywood, you have to create something that makes you stand out.”

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