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1999 Al-Ataa Award Recipients
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Dourade Lahham
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1934, Dourade Lahham achieved a master’s degree in Chemistry and a diploma in Education.
He taught at high schools and as a professor at the University of Damascus.
In 1960, he started to focus on his artistic talents as director and
actor. He also wrote satirical pieces on the daily life of Arabs.
His vast work includes 25 films, seven television series and seven satirical plays:
- Ghorba
- Daia Tishreen
- Kasak Ya Watan
- Shaka’ek Al-No’man
- Sanieh Al-Matar
Dourade Lahham's most important film was 1985's Al-Hadood.
For this, he was awarded the Best Film Award by the Egyptian Film
Critics and the Catholic Center in Cairo, Egypt, as well as the Best
Script Award by the Valencia Film Festival. He was also awarded the
Golden Pyramid Award for his film Kafroon. In 1991, he was honored in Paris by the Arab World College.
For his special interest in the welfare of children, UNICEF appointed him Goodwill Ambassador
for Syrian children in 1997. In 1999, his success and dedication led
him to become the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for children of Middle
East and North Africa.
He has been awarded the following medals:
- Jordanian Star, 1956
- Syrian Appreciation Medal, 1976
- Medal of Education, Tunisia, 1979
- Wishah Al-Akhdar, Libya, 1991
- Medal of the Lebanese Cedar, 1999
In addition, Dourade Lahham has received proclamations from 70 institutes and critics in America, Australia and Europe.
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Mouna Wassef
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1942, Mouna Wassef started her career as a top model in a prestigious fashion house in Syria.
Her acting debut came in 1960 when she joined the Armed Forces Theater in a lead role in the play Green Perfume. She continued to act from 1960 to 1963, when she married film director Mohammad Chahin.
In 1964 she joined the Group for Dramatic Arts and starred in stage productions of the National Theater: productions such as Molier’s Don Juan. This signaled the beginning of a very important stage in her career.
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In 1974, the well-known Syrian-American director Mustafa Akkad chose Mouna to play the leading female role in The Message. This propelled her image into the rest of the Arab world.
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Among the many honors and awards that Mouna has received are the Al-Fatih Medal, the Ghassan al-Kanafani Medallion and many other awards received in Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Mouna is often invited to Arab countries to lecture and attend seminars and conferences, including the International Film Festival in Damascus in 1993, the Sharja Theater Festival, the Arab TV Festival in Bahrain as recently as 1999, and many more.
Currently, Mouna divides her time between her artistic career and her interest in issues pertaining to the emancipation of women in the Arab world.
Mouna Wassef has starred in more than 25 plays by Arab and international playwrights, and in TV productions such as Dalila and al-Zaybaq, al-Khansa, and Love and Winter.
She has also starred in numerous films:
- Another Face of Love (1973)
- al-Yazirli (1974)
- The Adventure (1974)
- The Opposite Direction (1975)
- The Red, The White and the Black (1976)
- Heroes are Born Twice (1977)
- Photo Relics (1979)
- The Sun on a Cloudy Day (1985)
- Something is Burning (1993)
- The Sea (1994)
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