Safaa Fathy

Safaa Fathy is an Egyptian poet, documentary filmmaker, playwright, and essayist. She is best known for her film Derrida's Elsewhere, a documentary which focuses on the life and concepts of controversial philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Early life and career
Fathy was born in Minya, Upper Egypt on July 17, 1958. She studied English literature in Cairo. Fathy participated in the student movement while in Egypt but later left the country and settled in Paris in 1981. In 1987, she was an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater located in East Berlin. Fathy worked with Heiner Muller in 1990. She completed her doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne in 1993; her thesis was on Bertolt Brecht. Before becoming a filmmaker, Fathy worked as a stage director.

Currently she serves as director of programme at the International College of Philosophy in Paris.

Collections

 * Revolution goes through walls, collection in Arabic, also published in English and French translations
 * A name to the sea
 * Al Haschiche (ISBN 9789689246138, a book of poetry accompanied by film-poem, Hidden Valley) bilingual Spanish-French, Ediciones sin nombre, Mexico; English-language edition, Pamenar Press.
 * …où ne pas naître, bilingual collection in Arabic and French
 * Little Wooden Dolls


 * حيث لا نولد, published in a bilingual Arabic-English edition as Where Not to Be Born (Litmus Press, 2024)

In collective volumes

 * Ma langue est mon territoire, Collection Folies d’encre, Eden, Paris
 * Anthology of Contemporary Arab Women Poets

Theatre
Ordalie ; Terreur (2004, ISBN 9782872823796)

Books

 * Tourner les mots with Jacques Derrida

On philosophy and politics

 * L’aporie of lui  in Derrida à Coimbra. Palimage Editores, Coimbra, Portugal. 2006
 * Un(e) spectre nommé(e) « avenir » in Cahiers de l’Herne on Jacques Derrida. 2005
 * Derrida, metteur en scène ou acteur Magazine Littéraire, N° 430. 2004
 * Transparence du Halal, transgression du Haram Vacarme, 2002

On poetry, theatre, cinema

 * hôra/Luz y desierto. Revelación de lo oscuro (Spanish, 2010)
 * Hisser les voiles: Odyssée féminine à travers la Méditerranée. Microfisuras, 1999*
 * Dissidences et dissonances. Cartographie d'une poésie égyptienne. Almadraba (revue), Seville. 1998
 * Exil, in Pour Rushdie, La Découverte, Paris. 1993

Documentary

 * Mohammad sauvé des eaux (Mohammad Saved from the Waters), TS production, Paris
 * Dardasha Socotra, UNESCO, government of Yemen.
 * D'ailleurs, Derrida, Arte, France
 * Maxime Rodinson : l'Athée des Dieux (Maxime Rodinson, Atheist of the Gods), France
 * Ghazeia, danseuses d'Egypte (Ghazeia, Egyptian Dancers), Canal plus, France
 * Hidden Faces

Fiction

 * Nom à la mer, film-poem, text Safaa Fathy, read by Jacques Derrida
 * Silence, short fiction, Mention spéciale du Jury, Rencontres de Digne-les-Bains 1997, prime à la qualité CNC
 * Doisneau