Tunisian actress Hend Sabri to star, create new Netflix drama-comedy
The female-focused show is expected to be filmed in Egypt, and production is expected to start in fall 2020
Updated 14 July 2021
Arab News
DUBAI: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabri has joined forces with Netflix to star in a drama-comedy that she will also executively produce for the first time, the streaming service announced Monday.
The female-focused show is expected to be filmed in Egypt, and production is expected to start in fall 2020.
“I’m very happy to announce that I’m joining the Netflix family to create a new show centered around women. I’m also very excited because this will be my first experience as an executive producer!” the multi-award winning star wrote to her 2.7 million Instagram followers.
Sabry has previously collaborated with Netflix on a campaign, “Because She Watched,” to curate an inspirational film collection on the platform.
The 40-year-old actress, who has a degree in law, has previously made history by becoming the first Arab woman to serve as a jury member in the 2019 Venice Film Festival.
Sabri, who is a UN goodwill ambassador for the World Food Programme, started acting in 1994 in Tunisia. She then moved to Egypt, where she got married and currently lives, to expand her outreach.
With a career that spans over two decades, she has proven to be one of the Arab world’s most iconic actresses with a number of successful films and shows under her belt.
Art Cairo spotlights pioneering artist Inji Efflatoun
Updated 23 January 2026
Saffiya Ansari
CAIRO: Art Cairo 2026 returned to Egypt’s bustling capital from Jan. 23-26, with visitors treated to gallery offerings from across the Middle East as well as a solo museum exhibition dedicated to pioneering Egyptian artist Inji Efflatoun.
While gallery booths hailed from across the Arab world, guests also had the chance to explore the oeuvre of the politically charged artist, who died in 1989.
Many of the pieces in the 14-work exhibition were drawn from the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art and cover four main periods of the artist’s work, including her Harvest, Motherhood, Prison and Knoll series.
While gallery booths hailed from across the Arab world, guests also had the chance to explore the oeuvre of the politically charged artist, who died in 1989. (Supplied)
Efflatoun was a pivotal figure in modern Egyptian art and is as well known for her work as her Marxist and feminist activism.
“This is the third year there is this collaboration between Art Cairo and the Ministry of Culture,” Noor Al-Askar, director of Art Cairo, told Arab News.
“This year we said Inji because (she) has a lot of work.”
Born in 1924 to an affluent, Ottoman-descended family in Cairo, Efflatoun rebelled against her background and took part heavily in communist organizations, with her artwork reflecting her abhorrence of social inequalities and her anti-colonial sentiments.
Many of the pieces in the 14-work exhibition were drawn from the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art and cover four main periods of the artist’s work, including her Harvest, Motherhood, Prison and Knoll series. (Supplied)
One untitled work on show is a barbed statement on social inequalities and motherhood, featuring a shrouded mother crouched low on the ground, working as she hugs and seemingly protects two infants between her legs.
The artist was a member of the influential Art et Liberte movement, a group of staunchly anti-imperialist artists and thinkers.
In 1959, Efflatoun was imprisoned under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the second president of Egypt. The artist served her sentence for four years across a number of women’s prisons in the deserts near Cairo — it was a period that heavily impacted her art, leading to her post-release “White Light” period, marked dynamic compositions and vibrant tones.
Grouped together, four of the exhibited works take inspiration from her time in prison, with powerful images of women stacked above each other in cell bunkbeds, with feminine bare legs at sharp odds with their surroundings.
Art Cairo 2026 returned to Egypt’s bustling capital from Jan. 23-26. (Supplied)
The bars of the prison cells obstruct the onlooker’s view, with harsh vertical bars juxtaposed against the monochrome stripes of the prison garb in some of her works on show.
“Modern art, Egyptian modern art, most people, they really don’t know it very well,” Al-Askar said, adding that there has been a recent uptick in interest across the Middle East, in the wake of a book on the artist by UAE art patron Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi.
“So, without any reason, all the lights are now on Inji,” Al-Askar added.
Although it was not all-encompassing, Art Cairo’s spotlight on Efflatoun served as a powerful starting point for guests wishing to explore her artistic journey.
