‘Aeaza Alwalad’: Ragaa Al Geddawy's new comedy to release nearly a year after her death

'Aeaza Alwalad' features one of the Egyptian acting veteran's final appearances

Ragaa Al Geddawy, pictured at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2012, died on July 5, 2020. Getty Images

A new film will feature one of the last appearances by Ragaa Al Geddawy.

The Egyptian acting great, who died after contracting Covid-19 in July 2020 at the age of 81, will star in Aeaza Alwalad (Apple of My Eyes).

The comedy will premiere on MBC's steaming platform Shahid, under its paid tier Shahid VIP, before getting a run in regional cinemas.

The release date has yet to be revealed.

Directed by Sarah Noah and starring Mervat Amin and Dalal Abdel Aziz, the film's plot revolves around four women who get up to all kinds of high jinks as they search for their missing grandchildren.

It has been reported that Al Geddawy will play a supporting role and she filmed her collection of scenes shortly before she contracted Covid-19.

She will appear alongside a large ensemble cast that includes Amr Youssef, Mona Zaki and Egyptian singer Sherine.

A Ramadan without Al Geddawy

The news comes after Shahid announced its Ramadan line-up.

Among the 40 new shows on its streaming platform to broadcast during the holy month is the drama Covid-25, a 15-episode horror series imagining the worst-case scenario of the coronavirus pandemic.

For a lighter option, there is Mamnou' Al Tajawol, the new comedy series by Saudi funnyman Nasser Al Qasabi.

Despite all the great content coming our way, Ramadan television without Al Geddawy feels odd.

She continued to work diligently into her early eighties, and was considered to be one of the oldest working actors in the business, with a career spanning six decades.

Such longevity allowed her to experience key periods in the entertainment industry, including the golden age of Egyptian cinema (from the 1940s to the 1960s), the hallowed era of the country's stage scene (from the 1970s to the 1990s) and that time in the mid-1980s when a spate of seminal Egyptian TV dramas were produced.

Al Geddawy was there for all of these pinnacle moments, portraying various characters that showcased the spectrum of Egyptian society, from the glitterati to the working class.

Her last Ramadan television appearance came in 2020's Luebat Al-Nesyan, in which she starred alongside Dina Elsherbiny.