Youssef Chahine, you will be missed
With so much sadness, we say goodbye to one of the most celebrated and most controversial Arab personalities.
Egyptian film-maker Youssef Chahine, died on today aged 82 after several weeks in a coma. A funeral ceremony will be held in Cairo on Monday. He will buried in the family crypt in Alexandria where he was born.
For me personally, I feel it is a great loss, for the loss is compounded by the fact that we not only lost a great artist, but a genius who spent his life trying, through his movies, to recapture and defend the spirit of multicultural tolerance against the forces he saw undermining it — fundamentalism, dictatorship and imperialism.
Chahine was born into a Christian Egyptian family in Alexandria, on January 25, 1926. He began his education at a frères’ school and continued his studies at the Victoria College. After one year at Alexandria University, he moved to the United States to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.
His movies were always the subject of controversy, either for their frank portrayal of sexuality or his bold treatment of Islamic fundamentalism..
In his movie “Alexandria, Why?” he raised eyebrows by telling the story of two taboo love affairs — one homosexual between an Egyptian man and a British solider, the other between a Muslim man and a Jewish woman.
One of the main controversies was in his later work was the move the Emigrant.
In 1992, he started writing The Emigrant (1994), a story inspired by the Biblica (Qura’anic) character prophet Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream-project and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. This film created a controversy in Egypt between the enlightened wing and the fundamentalists who opposed the depiction of religious characters in films.
Movie Highlights
· Baba Amin (Papa Amin)- 1950 بابا أمين
· El mohareg el kebyr (The Big Clown) - المهرج الكبير
· Enta habyby (You’re My Love) - إنت حبيبى
· Ibn al-Nil (Nile Boy) - 1951 إبن النيل
· Sira` Fi al-Wadi (The Blazing Sun, Mortal Revenge, Struggle in the Valley)- 1954 صراع فى الوادى
· Sira` fi el-Minaa (Dark Waters, Struggle in the Port)- 1956 صراع فى الميناء
· Salwa al fatah al saghyra allaty tokalem el abkar (Salwa the little girl who talks to cows) - سلوى الفتاة الصغيرة التى تكلم الأبقار
· Bab al-Hadid (Cairo Station or Cairo Main Station)- 1958 باب الحديد
· Djamila Buhraid- 1958 جميلة بوحريد
· Al Nasser Salah Ad-Din (The Victorious Saladin) - 1963 الناصر صلاح الدين
· Fagr youm gedyd (Dawn of a New Day) - 1964 فجر يوم جديد
· ‘Biyaa El Khawatem’” (The Ring Salesman) produced in 1965 (based on the musical of 1964) بياع الخواتم
· Al-Ard (The Land)- 1969 الأرض
· El Asfur (The Bird) - العصفور
· Al-Ekhtyiar (the Choice) - الإختيار
· Awdet el ebn el dal (Return of The Prodigal Son) - 1976 عودة الإبن الضال
· Iskandariyah… lih? (Alexandria… Why?)- 1978 إسكندرية… ليه؟
· Hadduta Misriyah (An Egyptian Tale)- 1982 حدوتة مصرية
· Wadaan Bonabart (Adieu Bonaparte) - 1985 وداعا بونابرت
· al-Yawm al-Sadis (The Sixth Day) - 1986 اليوم السادس
· Iskandariyah Kaman wa Kaman (Alexandria Again and Again)- 1990 إسكندرية كمان وكمان
· El kahera menawara be 2ahlalaha - القاهرة منورة بأهلها
· Al-Mohagir (The Emigrant)- 1994المهاجر
· Al-Massir (The Destiny) - 1997 المصير
· Al-Akhar (The Other) الآخر
· Sokoot Hansawwar (Silence, We’re Rolling) سكوت ح نصور
· Iskandariyah-New York (Alexandria-New York) إسكندرية-نيويورك
· Heya Fawda (This Is Chaos) - 2007 هي فوضى (premiere at the Venice Film Festival)
On a last note, I always drew parallels between him and Almodovar, another film maker, whom i not only consider an artist, but a one in a life time genius!
Allah yer7amo he was an icon.
I looked up Almodovar filmography but did not recognize any title, honestly I’ve never heard of him before your post.
Almodovar is an Academy Award winner
Mr. Anonymous… Almodovar is hysterical, but what i love about him is that he puts impossible scenarios and expect you to beleive them just like that…
He always goes into the feminine psyche, shows women’s femininity with strong lipstic, red colour, beautiful dresses… and no matter how bleak things look…his stories are always hopeful
a great man.
Hareega,
I think both of them are… well Almodovar won the Oscar, but Chahine won several french awards…
I have not heard of Youssef Chahine before, but I like anyone who tries to promote multicultural tolerance.
Speaking of controversial personalities, I watched an interview with Salmon Rushdie today. He was talking about his new book and various other things. He said that he likes to create strong female characters. He said that one reason for this was that he was mostly raised by women, having three sisters and no brothers. I learned that he has done a bit of acting, appearing in several films. He was asked if he would like to switch from writing to acting and he said that he was always interested in acting, but that writing has always been his main passion.
I wonder, have any of Rushdie’s books been made into films? I should look that up.
Youssef Chahine was not only an Egyptian film director. he was credited with launching the career of many actors such as Omar Sharif and others that only made it in Egypt .Yet one cant deny the craftsman ship of Chahine in taking the best out of ordinary actors that gave him a remarkable performances thanks to Chahine’s abilities to direct, Chahine reached to wider international filmgoers’ audiences with his movies making, and he was chosen among 11 international co-directors of the 135 min film 11’9″01 September 11.
It was an international film composed of 11 contributions from different filmmakers, each from a different country. Each gave their own vision of the events on September 11, 2001; each produced a short film of 11 minutes and 9 seconds, in a one frame. It has been released internationally with several different titles, depending on the language. It is listed in the Internet Movie Database as 11′09″01 but unfortunately was not screened in many Arab countries .One should not forget his other bright side in the theater In 1992 Jacques Lassalle approached him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie-Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus’ Caligula, which proved hugely successful.
I beg to corect you Chahine was born into a Christian Egyptian family,in Zahle, Lebanon, on January 25, 1926.
We will miss him ,but he left us with a prolofic heritage to be proud of .
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Off topic
Aish ya batta..wainek