He was born on 6 August 1952 in Cairo, Egypt. He died on 5th June 2002.
"He was active in the student movement and was repeatedly imprisoned for his dissident politics, the reason why he graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy, in 1978, some years after his contemporaries", according to Hani Shukrallah.
Graduate in Philosophy, he moves on to study cinema in Cairo until 1984. His graduation short-film, La Femme du Sud, obtains the first film award from the Ministry of Culture. He publishes philosophical essays, thoughts and film critics. He was editor of the magazine Cinema and he regularly writes reviews for "al-Ahaly" and "Adab Wa Naqd" and is involved as director with several television series.
El-Kashef married Azza Kamel - with whom he had two children, a girl, Aida, in 1990, and a boy, Mustafa, in 1994.
First as assistant director on more than twenty films (Y. Chahine, D. Abdel Sayed etc.), he directs documentaries, of which A Life of a Wandering Vendor in 1992. After his first feature-length film, Le Bleu des violettes (1992), he directs La Sueur des palmiers (1998) and The Magician (2001) his last film.

Films (as director):
Al- Janoubiya / The Southern Woman (short, his 1984 graduation project)
Al-Warsha / The Workshop (1985, short)
Hayat Ba'ie Mutajawil / Life of a Salesman (1986, short)
A Life of a Wandering Vendor (1992, documentary),
Lei ya banafsegh / Violets are Blue (1992, feature),
Araq El-Balah / La Sueur des Palmiers / Date Wine (1996, feature),
Nissaa min Asrina / Women of Our Times (1999, short)
Al Saher / The Magician (2011, feature).

Source:
Various
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=104936216184227
www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/persons/radwan-el-kashef/