The Alexandria where Chahine was born on January 25, 1926, was a vibrant and cosmopolitan city at the time. His family background reflected this: his attorney father was of Lebanese heritage, while his mother was Greek. At home, as in the rest of Alexandria, some five languages were spoken, but the director has often joked that as with other Alexandrines, the Chahine's failed to master any of them very well. Both Alexandria and Egypt's other main city, Cairo, would later feature prominently in his films. "The introvert is often associated with Cairo," noted Film Comment, "with its narrow streets and cramped dwellings - while the extrovert is associated with Alexandria. . . . [which] remains the golden city of Chahine's work, a cosmopolitan Utopia where Europe and Africa peacefully coexist, where Christians (Chahine's family was Roman Catholic), Jews, and Muslims could once live together, providing a model for a now lost Middle Eastern harmony. The image of the port, open to the world, becomes an image of acceptance and synthesis."
The Chahine's were a middle-class family, and Chahine was educated at private schools, including the elite Victoria College, Alexandria's English-language institute. He was fascinated by theater and the performing arts at an early age, and even began to stage shows at home. Tragedy struck when he was nine years old, however.
In his teens, Chahine spent a year at Alexandria University, and then convinced his parents to let him travel to Hollywood in order to study acting. He spent the years between 1946 and 1948 at the Pasadena Playhouse outside Los Angeles, California. When he returned, he found apprentice work with an Italian documentary filmmaker, Gianni Vernuccio, and found another Italian mentor in Alvisi Orfanelli, an influential figure in Egypt's cinema history. The film industry in Chahine's country had a successful and storied past by the time he began working in it. Since the 1930s Cairo had been known as the Hollywood of the Middle East, and its studios annually produced scores of films that were seen in theaters throughout the Arab world. It was this tradition that Chahine entered when he made his first film, Baba Amine (Father Amine), in 1950. His next one, Ibn el Nil (The Nile's Son), he took to the 1951 Venice Film Festival, where a sudden storm caused festival-goers to flee to his showing in droves - some in their bathing suits still - and the fortuitous timing served to launch his career in earnest.
At age 81, Chahine has finished his 45th film Heya Fawda, that is expected to be released in Egypt early 2008. The film has been selected at Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. In June of 2008, Chahine was in a coma due to suffering a brain haemorrhage. Chahine remained in the coma for month, until he passed on in July 2008. He will be missed.
Heya Fawda is the movie I chose to tell you about. It was released in 2008. It is written by Abdel Rahman Nasser, produced by Gabriel Khoury, Jean brehat & Maged Youssef. The story of the film is settled in Choubra, a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Cairo. Hatem, maggoty police officer, handles this neighbourhood with an iron hand. Every single citizen fears and hates him. Only Nour, a young woman he lusts after, dares stand up to him. But Nour is secretly in love with Cherif, brilliant and uncorrupted deputy public prosecutor. Green with envy, Hatem comes between. He wants Nour for himself. He whipsaws her and turns her life into a nightmare. The story of a frustrated love like Choubra experiences some since the mists of time.
All about Youssef Chahine, the great Egyptian director, is mentioned in his website http://www.youssefchahine.us
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