One of Egypt's leading film directors. One of Egypt's leading directors, Muhammad Khan whose films focussed on social ills and often featured feminist protagonists. While Muhammad Khan was not prominent beyond the Middle East, his neorealist films were both popular and critically acclaimed in the region. Three of them, 'Streetplayer' in 1984, 'The Wife of an Important Man' in 1987, and 'Dreams of Hind and Camilla' in 1989, were included by the Dubai International Film Festival in 2013 in its list of the 100 Best Arab Films in the book 'Cinema of Passion.' He gained fame with 'Streetplayer,' about a disillusioned soccer player; followed by 'The Wife of an Important Man,' about a repressive policeman; and his 2001 'Days of Sadat,' a dramatisation about the former Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat. Among his most recent films were 'Factory Girl' in 2013, one of several in which the protagonist was a feminist — in this case, a poor textile worker who sought to challenge Egypt's rigid class structure by seizing control of her own fate — and 'Before the Summer Crowds' in 2016, which also satirised the country's society through the relationship of four neighbours visiting a beach resort. Born Muhammad Hamed Hassan Khan in Cairo to a Pakistani father and an Egyptian mother. He planned on studying architectural engineering in London, where a friend introduced him to the London School of Film Technique (now the London Film School). He worked as an assistant director in Lebanon and London. He returned to Egypt in 1977, where he made his directorial debut the next year with 'Sunstroke.' He was granted Egyptian citizenship in 2014.