Director. Strategist. Serial Entrepreneur. Everything else. All things Dibo.

Ask me what I do and the answer keeps changing and developing. Current count: award-winning director, producer, strategist, entrepreneur, public speaker, lecturer, soon-to-be author, lifelong collector of smiley pins. The promise, if you need one: give me a story and a brief, and I'll hand back something that has never been done the same way before. One that people talk about. Not just watch. Talk about.

Commercial Work

Because I come originally from a strategy/consulting, and agency background, I enjoy doing commercial work. I enjoy giving my clients what I needed when I was on their side of the table.

Commercial Work
Films and Narrative Work

Telling stories is my forte. I love creating an experience for my audience, by digging deep into my soul and really creating a compelling story. All of my life’s work and experiences come together to bring stories together into a full moving picture.

Films and Narrative
Public Appearances

Generosity is one of my most important values. In that spirit, I love sharing. I love sharing experiences, thoughts and ideas through podcasts, public speaking, and teaching on a university level. I have also been featured in different publications for my commercial work, and my films that have been selected (or those that won) for film festivals globally.

In the Press

The story

Before any of this there was a strategist's brain, then an entrepreneur's. Three companies built and run before I ever picked up a camera. A Cambridge International Fellowship at 21. My father's Sotheby's card is still around somewhere, which probably explains more about where the eye for a story came from than anything on a CV. Cairo first, then London, now somewhere between the two most of the time. Directing came last, not first. That is probably why there is more in the mix than most directors bring to a brief.

The pin

There's a small smiley pin that shows up in almost every behind the scenes photo from my sets, all over the world, for years now. I make them in all sorts of colours, so the sets are unique, and the crew can collect different colours when we work together again. Before a shoot starts, I have to open a few bags of M&Ms and organize them by colour. I love this playful little thing happening in the middle of all the chaos. Anyone who has worked with me as a key crew member has a smiley pin (or a few)!

Recognition

Press coverage in Al Ahram, Masrawy, CairoScene and Gulf Magazine. Eleven campaigns on Ads of the World, with Storytel featured on their homepage. A Cambridge International Fellowship at 21. A Best Film win for L'amore resta at Cinemadamare. None of this is the point of the work. It is just the record of it.

Al Ahram

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Masrawy

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Al Dostour

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Akhbar El Youm

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Al Gomhuria

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Al Balad

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Shababeek

Al Ahram 〰️ Masrawy ~ Al Dostour ~ Akhbar El Youm ~ Al Gomhuria ~ Al Balad ~ Shababeek

A filmmaker and multi-dimensional artist with relevant global experience and exposure.

Some featured projects

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF ITS KIND IN EGYPT

Love Matters Arabic was built around questions kids actually ask their parents: "Mama, what does sex mean?", "Will I get the period?", answered honestly instead of dodged. Shot like short films, not ads, on purpose. Then I directed the first of four awareness films for Safe Egypt's "Talk to Them About Tomatoes," using something as ordinary as a tomato to hand parents words they were never given themselves. Palma took the same instinct to periods with Own It Period. Three campaigns, one pattern: say the thing everyone else talks around. "I'm not afraid of starting difficult dialogues. We change the world by changing perspectives." Love Matters was covered by CairoScene, who interviewed me and copywriter Marawan Hafez directly. Safe's tomato campaign got its own CairoScene feature. Palma sits on my Ads of the World agency page.