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DUBAI: In the world of Arab cinema, there is perhaps no living actress more beloved than Nelly Karim. In more than two decades in front of the camera, the star – born in Alexandria to an Egyptian father and Soviet Russian mother – has established himself as an icon in both style and substance. Effortlessly moving from Ramadan’s biggest hits to prestige arthouse films, Karim imbues each role with authenticity regardless of genre, as only the best can.

However, it can feel lonely at the top. At 48 years old, Karim is at the top of his game both as an artist and a titan of fashion and pop-culture. Although she loves film and television, the challenge is finding material worthy of the dedication she will undoubtedly devote to it. So when something really great happens, she drops everything to be a part of it. This is precisely what she did for “Voy! See! See! » — the first feature film from director Omar Hilal.

“It’s almost impossible to find a good script – believe me, I read them constantly,” Karim tells Arab News. “Everything is repetitive. Same topics, nothing new. It’s an epidemic. But in this scenario, everything seemed different. It featured characters I had never met before, situations that seemed completely new.

The film – the first co-production between Vox Cinemas, Image Nation Abu Dhabi and super producer Moh Hefzy’s Film Clinic – is exactly as she describes it. Announced at a big press conference at the Red Sea Film Festival last year (the year Karim was on the festival’s main jury), it’s an irreverent comedy that’s hard to categorize. Actor Mohammed Farrag portrays Roberto Benigni and John Turturro as a man so desperate to reach Europe that he joins a blind soccer team just as they embark on the World Cup, despite not being not disabled. Karim plays the journalist who interviews him, deceived by his charm.

“My role is small and I’m surrounded entirely by men, but I don’t care what the circumstances are if the project is good enough. I’ve done it before: in Mohamed Diab’s film “Clash”, I was the only woman in a police truck of 23 men, all stuck in the same place for the entire film. I want these kinds of challenges. It’s unique films like this that you end up watching four or five times,” she explains.

Karim is proud of the number of directors she worked with at the start of her rise. Long before Diab opened the Cannes Film Festival with “Clash” and directed Marvel’s “Moon Knight,” Karim reminds us that she starred in her first film “678,” just as she starred in the famous filmmaker’s first films Egyptian Amir Ramses. and the Lebanese Othman Abo Labn.

“Of course, it’s great to work with great directors,” says Karim, who began his career in one of legendary director Yousef Chahine’s last films, “Alexandria… New York.” “But every great career has a beginning, and I love working with people who are just beginning to pursue their passion.”

In many ways, Karim, who rarely grants lengthy interviews, is still only scratching the surface of his own passions. Time and time again, during our hours of conversation, I am reminded of director David Lynch. Like Lynch, Karim is virtually egoless and neutral in his speech, speaking only of the labor necessary for artistic creation and the quest for greatness that motivates it. And, like Lynch, no matter what medium she uses, she will follow the impulse to create wherever it takes her.

“I don’t consider myself just an actor. I love crafts, for example; I still create jewelry, I make my own clothes, I draw on shelves. I like photography. I love music. I love flowers, the countryside, animals… I simply love beauty and every day I want to create something new. One day it might be a movie, another day it might be furniture, then a bit of crocheting or planting a beautiful tree. Everything is art when it comes from love, and all of this is a blessing to me,” she says.

It is well known that Karim did not start her career in the spotlight as an actress. From childhood to her big break – dancing to “Fawazeer Ramadan” – she was a ballerina. She danced in Alexandria and then in the former Soviet Union, where she lived for a time as a child, and was sufficiently moved by the work of the famous Russian choreographer Boris Eifman, at the age of five, to decide then and there that his life would be spent on stage.

“It was a modern dance performance at the Odessa Opera House, I remember it exactly. It was something euphoric for me,” she adds.

It was through ballet that she acquired her famous work ethic. “You will never find me late for anything, you will never find me unanswered. Respect for the people around you, respect for their times, is the most important thing in any character,” she says. But it was thanks to her mother that she found her humility.

“Since I was four years old, she always made me beautiful ballet dresses. We couldn’t buy them, so she always did it herself,” Karim recalls. “I think that’s why I like doing things with my hands so much. My mother taught me to do things on my own.

Perhaps that, she reveals, is why the next phase of her career will come more directly from her own hands. Karim is working on several screenplays with collaborators, some of which she hopes to direct herself. But this is not a matter of cleverly sourcing actor materials. Rather, she is simply pursuing another newly discovered passion, struck by the excitement of new stories never before told, this time coming from within.

“I just met with someone about a film I’m planning to make, and they listened very carefully. They expected me to portray myself in the lead role, the way they wanted to visualize it. I told them, “Actually, it’s a horse. Visualize it instead,” she says with a laugh.

For Karim, creation is its own reward. When I ask her how she measures success, she doesn’t mention her global brand ambassadors, her major awards, or her box office and audience records. Rather, it’s the times when she’s on vacation in a place like New York, and someone approaches her to tell her how much her work means to them.

“Moments like this leave me speechless. I get so emotional. I’ve traveled the world, and here’s someone in front of me who appreciates the work I’ve done, and all he wants from me is a hug, and all he wants from me giving is a thank you,” she says.

Such recognition means everything to her, but it is not her goal. Although she inspires a new generation of talent across the region and the world, when we ask her about legacy, she quickly brushes it aside. Karim just wants to bring a little more beauty to the world, and it’s up to us how we want to appreciate it.

“I don’t think great people, at the time they were working and creating, thought about how to be great. They worked, loved and created, and then the years decide,” she says. “I don’t care about being called big. I just try to do things with love, respect and care. That’s all for me. That’s all.”