Farewell, Sana Shafie

CAIRO – 12 August 2020: Egypt’s Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem  mourned the great artist and director Sanaa Shafie, who passed away today, Wednesday, August 12, at the age of 77, after a struggle with illness.

Abdel Dayem stated that Shafie formed a dramatic milestone in the Egyptian Acting Professions arena and succeeded in making a special kind of stardom as he excelled in performing complex characters and produced a group of immortal works as well as contributed to preparing generations of specialized playwrights.

Shafie is an Egyptian actor, theater director and academic professor. He was born in the village of Musha in Assiut Governorate in Upper Egypt in 1943 and moved to Cairo at the age of 8 years with his father, who was a scholar of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.

Attracted by art, he joined the hobbyist groups at Imad El Din Street and walked the academic journey until he graduated from the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts and worked as a teacher there until he eventually became the dean of the institute. 

He also worked in television, cinema and theater, directed the play (Don Quixote) in 1975 and others, in addition to performing many prominent film and television roles.