Marrakech Film Festival: Mona Zaki on Becoming Umm Kulthum, Inside El Sett’s Triumphant Premiere

 

On the red carpet of the Marrakech Film Festival, where El Sett had its world premiere, Mona Zaki carried not just the weight of a role, but the legacy of an entire cultural universe. In Marwan Hamed’s anticipated biographical epic, she portrays Umm Kulthum, the undisputed empress of Arab music, a voice that crossed borders, classes, and generations. It is perhaps the most ambitious role of Zaki’s career, one that demanded not only technical precision but emotional excavation.

Portraying Umm Kulthum, she explained, was nothing short of monumental. “It was a great honor and a huge responsibility,” Zaki said. “Umm Kulthum is revered across the Arab world. Capturing her persona, her artistry, her humanity, was incredibly challenging.” In Marrakech, this reverence was palpable, audiences entered the screening almost holding their breath, aware of how deeply the singer’s myth remains woven into the region’s collective memory.

To embody such an icon, Zaki embarked on an intense, nearly year-long immersion. “The preparation took over a year, with daily training sessions except Fridays,” she revealed. She worked with an acting coach, a physical acting coach, and vocal specialists to trace Umm Kulthum’s evolution from a rural village girl to the powerhouse who ruled Cairo’s stages. “I had to portray her at different stages of her life, her voice, her mannerisms, her emotional vulnerability. It was a long and challenging journey, but Marwan Hamed supported me emotionally every step of the way.”

Hamed’s guidance, she said, was instrumental. “He brought in coaches for everything, the physicality, the dialogue, the vocals. He wanted authenticity, and that meant constant work.” Their collaboration mirrors the meticulousness that Umm Kulthum herself was known for, a dedication to craft that feels almost generationally inherited.

But stepping into the role of a woman who reshaped Arab artistic identity also stirred something personal in Zaki. The film captures Umm Kulthum’s early struggle to assert herself in a male-dominated music industry, a struggle that, as Zaki notes, still echoes loudly today. “Even in my own career, starting at 13, I faced challenges. I was often the only woman surrounded by men, there to be the lovely face, not the voice.”

She pauses, then adds, “It took time and determination to start saying no to roles that didn’t let me explore meaningful stories about women. And that’s when the controversial, interesting opportunities began to appear, when I took a stand.”

This parallel between actress and legend turns El Sett into something more than a biopic, it becomes a meditation on female agency, artistic ownership, and the cost of speaking loudly in spaces that prefer women quiet. “Women today, Arab women especially, are still fighting for equal pay, opportunities, recognition,” she said. “But with more women taking charge of their narratives, I’m hopeful real progress will come.”

Debate around the film’s portrayal of Umm Kulthum began almost immediately after the premiere, expected, perhaps inevitable. Zaki takes it with grace. “I respect all opinions, positive or negative. As long as the work is done with sincerity and respect, I try not to be affected by criticism.”

In Marrakech, however, the applause told a different story: admiration not only for Umm Kulthum’s eternal shadow, but for the woman courageous enough to step inside it. Zaki doesn’t presume to replace her, instead, she offers a portrait shaped by humility, rigor, and profound emotional truth. And in doing so, Mona Zaki, one of Egypt’s most beloved actresses, finds herself in rare cinematic territory: not just portraying history, but expanding it.