Nadia Shoukry is a pioneer of film editing in Egyptian cinema and television. In the interview, she shared her career milestones, highlighting the several awards she earned for her work, and her participation in prominent movies alongside Egypt’s top directors.

Nadia Shoukry grew up in Shubra, Cairo, with her four sisters and a brother. Her father worked as a textile merchant, and her mother was a homemaker who was always there for her children. Nadia described both of her parents as kind and tender. Nadia attended kindergarten and primary school at Du Bon Pasteur French School in Shubra, for its proximity to home, and was taught by French nuns. She recalled that at school, students were not allowed to speak in Arabic at all. The French nuns were keen on education, pedagogy, and spreading their culture, in addition to teaching the students different social skills, such as food etiquette. Nadia recalled that at one point of her life she wanted to become a nun herself because of how much she loved her teachers.

After completing primary school, Nadia moved with her family to Mansheyet al-Bakri, and attended an Egyptian secondary school, where she struggled at first since she had not studied the Arabic language before. Although she did not pursue further studies after high school, Nadia decided to learn the art of film editing, upon the recommendations of a family friend, the director Hassan Reda. In 1957, and a long time after leaving school, Nadia started her training in film editing under the tutelage of the film editor, Hussein Afifi, since the Film Institute had not yet been established at that time. She explained that she did not face any objections from her family to the idea of training and working in the field of film editing, and in filmmaking and cinema in general.

Nadia loved the art of editing, and the idea of arranging scene.  During her training, she used to imagine how she could arrange and change scenes, before even working with actual films.  After completing the training, Nadia worked as a second assistant to Hussein Afifi, then as a first assistant. She then worked as a first assistant to Rashida Abd al-Salam -an Egyptian woman pioneer of film editing- on many of her movies, among which was The Palace Walk, directed by Hassan Al-Imam. Nadia recalled that Rashida Abd al-Salam as well as Amira Salem -the wife of director Kamal al-Sheikh- preceded her to the field of film editing, and were the only women in the field at the time.

Nadia later worked as a film editor of 14 of Hassan al-Imam’s movies. She recounted that she enjoyed working with director Hassan al-Imam because he was nice and witty, and never interfered in her work. His movies were the ones she really enjoyed working on during her career. Nadia spoke about the actress Souad Hosni, with whom she worked in many movies, the most famous of which was Watch Out for Zouzou. She described Souad Hosni as a very attractive personality, with a strong love for the acting profession. Nadia also worked with director Nour al-Demerdash on many of his television series. Among the top movie directors Nadia worked with were Hassan Reda, Atef al-Tayeb, Khairi Bishara, Tawfik Saleh, and Youssef Chahine. In addition, Nadia edited all of Mohamed Khan’s movies.

Nadia recounted her work experience in the movie Adham al-Sharqawi, as an assistant to Rashida Abd al-Salam. The main assistant editor in the movie was Mohie Abd al-Gawad, but due to his university exams, he was unable to finish his work on the movie. Nadia was then assigned to complete his work, and got the chance to do the movie’s effects and mixing.  The movie producer, Ramses Naguib, who was one of the most important and successful producers at the time, had requested a promotional trailer for the movie. Because of her travels, Rashida was unavailable, and asked Nadia to do the movie trailer. The trailer caught the attention of Ramses Naguib and Hossam al-Din Mustafa, the movie director, and both admired Nadia’s work. As a result, Ramses Naguib later asked her to work with him in a number of movies, including Bitter Grapes, and The Crown.

Nadia stated in the interview that she loved challenges at work, and always chose the tough jobs. Her work required great patience, and she had a desire to stand out, and not to repeat what her colleagues had already done. Nadia shared her memories working with various directors, explaining that they had different ways of dealing with the editing process, and different visions when it came to changing or removing scenes from their movies. She also talked about the changes and developments that occurred in the field of film editing over the years, as well as the changes to the Egyptian society as a whole, particularly concerning tolerance in social relations, and the willingness to accept the other.

For Nadia Shoukry, being a woman in a male-dominated field did not have a negative impact on her, or on her work in any way, which she attributed to her strength and courage in dealing with people, in addition to her devotion to her work, which she described as a creative process, like tailoring dresses. Nadia edited a large number of the most prominent movies in the history of Egyptian cinema, including The Bullet Is Still in My Pocket, The Ace, The Bus Driver, The Escape, and many others.