Director Mohamed Essam Abdel Razek expressed his happiness about his film Living Underground participating in the Alexandria Mediterranean Countries Festival and receiving an Honorable Mention from the jury.

In exclusive statements to Youm7, director Mohamed Essam Abdel Razek said he was among the first to introduce aerial drone filming in Egypt and has shot more than 100 films and 80 TV series.

Mohamed Essam Abdel Razek added that while filming the movie Matrah Matrouh with director Wael Ehsan starring Mahmoud Hemida, he spoke to Hemida about his dream of working as a director. Hemida told him, “There is no such thing as ‘I wish’; it is ‘I want to be a director’,” encouraging him to take the leap, not fear failure, and learn from mistakes. This encouragement was a strong push for him to present the experimental documentary film Living Underground despite production difficulties, working as a one-man crew and using real protagonists instead of professional actors.