AUC Awaits the Return of Henedi’s Khalaf El Dahshoury

He’s back.

Popular comedian Mohamed Henedi is planning to bring back his much loved character Khalaf El Dahshoury Khalaf from the famous 1998 movie ‘Sa’eedi fil Gamaa el Amrekeia’.

Henedi told a packed Bassily Auditorium that he intended on filming a sequel soon.

“You will watch part two of Sa’eedi fil Gamaa el Amrekeia by next January,” confirmed scriptwriter Medhat El Adl at the Hall of Fame event last week.

And that’s when the auditorium exploded with excitement as audience members chanted “We love you Khalaf”.

“I am waiting to see this movie and I am super excited,” said Communication Media Arts Sophomore Malak Waguih.

Sa’eedi fil Gamaa el Amrekeia is an Egyptian movie tackling the story of a boy from Upper Egypt who received a scholarship at AUC and decided to go to Cairo to continue his educational path there.

While the movie follows Khalaf’s wacky adventures with AUCians, it covers important social and political topics in a comic frame.

“The combination of a boy from Upper Egypt and the American University’s environment gives flavor to the movie, which sticks with people,” said El Adl.

Henedi also believes the film carries an important message to Egyptian youth.

“The reason why we did Sa’eedi is because we wanted to warn AUC students to take care of their Egyptian identity because Americanization was widespread at that time,” Henedi told The Caravan.

“I feel like I am dreaming,” Henedi told The Caravan, explaining that he would have never imagined that this movie could get all this success even after 20 years.

This year, the Theater and Film Club (TFC), who organized the Hall of fame event, noticed that it had been 20 years since the screening of Sa’eedi fil Gamaa el Amrekeia, and decided to host an event in celebration of the movie.

“We found a post on [the Facebook group], ‘Rate AUC Professors’ of a student asking to bring Henedi to campus and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie,” said TFC Co-President Youssef Medhat. 

Medhat says he was surprised by the event’s turnout – more than 1,400 students and non-AUCians filled bassily auditorium.

“People were standing and sitting on the stairs because there were no available seats,” he said.

The event began with the screening of the popular comedy followed by a sketch performed by TFC actors and a discussion between the host and co-founder of TFC Tarek El Ebiary, Henedi and El Adl.

Henedi told The Caravan that he went backstage to listen to the audience’s reaction to the movie.

“I was so happy. I felt like it is was being screened for the first time,” said Henedi