Omar Robert Hamilton

Omar Robert Hamilton is a novelist, screenwriter and director. Born in London, he moved to Cairo with the outbreak of revolution in 2011, establishing the Mosireen media collective with fellow filmmakers to document the uprising from ground level. Together, they produced dozens of short documentaries that generated millions of views. He wrote and directed Though I Know the River is Dry, a short fiction shot in Palestine starring Kais Nashef (Paradise Now) which took the Prix UIP at Rotterdam, Best Short at Abu Dhabi, and was nominated for Best Short at the European Film Awards. His first novel, The City Always Wins, based on his experience in the Egyptian revolution, was published by Faber & Faber in 2017, and in translation across the major European languages. It was named a Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and awarded the Society of Authors prize for Best Debut Under 35 and the Prix de Littérature by the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.