Youssef Chahine
Biography: Youssef Chahine (born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1926) started studying in a friars' school and then turned to Victoria College until High School Certificate. After one year at the University of Alexandria, he moved to the U.S. and spent two years at the Pasadena Play House, taking courses on film and dramatic arts. After coming back to Egypt, cinematographer Alevise Orfanelli helped him into the film business. His film debut was Baba Amin (1950): one year later, with Son of the Nile (1951) he was first invited to the Cannes Film festival. In 1970, he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Festival. With Le moineau (1973), he directed the first Egypt-Algeria co-production. He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria... Why? (1979), the first installment in what proved to be an autobiographic trilogy, completed with Hadduta Masriya (1982)(An Egyptian Story (1982)) and Alexandria: Again and Forever (1989). In 1992, Jacques Lassalle proposed him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus' "Caligula," which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing The Emigrant (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream project, and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, he was again selected Hors Competition in Cannes with Destiny (1997).
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: January 25, 1926
Deathday: July 27, 2008
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Known For
Kiarostami in Close up
2000-01-01
Kiarostami in Close up
Overview: A documentary that focuses on Abbas Kiarostami's cinematic philosophy talking to himself and other figures, and also seeks the opinion about his works both inside and outside his homeland.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fa
Release Date: 2000-01-01
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Dawn of a New Day
1964-02-10
Dawn of a New Day
Overview: The story of a 40-year-old married woman who has fallen into idleness and does not know how to approach the revolutionary events in her country. She finds a new meaning in life when she falls in love with an aspiring young student. “I shot FAGR YOM GUEDID in 1964. I count it among my best films and still stand by it completely. It is about the class whose assets were nationalized after the 1952 revolution. I explored the question of whether this class still had a place in Egyptian society.”
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1964-02-10
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Women Without Men
1953-02-05
Women Without Men
Overview: A brother disagrees with his sister which makes her move to live with her older sister in the countryside. She finds her sister living a harsh life and when the brother goes to visit them, he's surprised by the strict way imposed by the sister at home.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1953-02-05
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Ismail Yassine in the Air Force
1959-06-14
Ismail Yassine in the Air Force
Overview: Ismail El Ghandoor works as a stuntman and a small time actor in movies. He falls in love with a young belly dancer, Soheir who dreams of being the wife of a pilot. Ismail dresses up in his brother Hussein’s clothes as a pilot in the force while his brother is away on his honeymoon. When Hussein returns the truth is revealed, and each of them goes back to his real job. Will Soheir accept the real Ismail or will she continue to pursue her dream of marrying a pilot?
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1959-06-14
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Cairo Station
1958-07-31
Cairo Station
Overview: Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1958-07-31
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Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine
1991-09-21
Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine
Overview: This concise masterpiece began as a commission by French TV for the news series Envoyé spécial. By filming Cairo with his unique sense of artistic digression, Chahine transformed this portrait of a city into the self-portrait of a filmmaker.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1991-09-21
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Alexandria Again and Forever
1989-12-04
Alexandria Again and Forever
Overview: Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in "Alexandria, Why?" and "An Egyptian Story". Obsessed with Amr, the handsome actor he discovered and cast as his alter-ego in parts one and two of The Alexandria Trilogy, Yehia pressures Amr to star in various film projects that change even as Yehia's perception of the young actor begins to change. He first casts Amr as Hamlet, which the actor deems too demanding for his talents, then as the lead in a musical biopic of demigod Alexander the Great, who founded the city of Alexandria in 332 B.C.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1989-12-04
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Let's Talk
2019-11-21
Let's Talk
Overview: A mother and her daughter explore together the trajectory of four generations of women from their family, an Egyptian family from the Levant where life and cinema have been intimately linked and still are. A cross look between family archives where the real and the fiction and the autobiographical films of Youssef Chahine mingle. From Alexandria to Cairo, passing through Paris and Havana, an intimate and visceral narrative where mother and daughter cross space and time to trace destinies and question their emotions
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 2019-11-21
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Concerto in Darb Saada
1998-06-14
Concerto in Darb Saada
Overview: Azoz, an employee at the Opera House accompanies a violinist who has just arrived from tours abroad in her errands in the city. He eventually gets influenced by her and starts listening to classical music, and simultaneously gets bored with his life and wife.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1998-06-14
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Into Studio Masr
2019-10-27
Into Studio Masr
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 2019-10-27
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An Egyptian Story
1982-09-27
An Egyptian Story
Overview: After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef Chahine) the man he has become.
Genres: Drama Fantasy
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1982-09-27
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Ouija
2006-01-06
Ouija
Overview: Two strangers try to solve a mystery that revolves around both of their tragic pasts. At the heart of the mystery lies a mystic board with an ability to kill.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 2006-01-06
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Trio
1987-04-02
Trio
Overview: Trio is a cinematic series of filmed portraits that shows, in a single large, fixed and silent shot of 3 minutes and 20 seconds, three people free to do what they want.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1987-04-02
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The Sixth Day
1986-09-29
The Sixth Day
Overview: Egypt, 1947: in the midst of a cholera outbreak. A washerwoman tries to take care of her family, while at the same time resisting the advances of a charming suitor who's half her age.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 1986-09-29
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Women Who Loved Cinema
2002-06-28
Women Who Loved Cinema
Overview: Six strong-willed women whose adventurous streak changed the face of film industry in early twentieth century Egypt – a time when the country was, despite the liberal ripples, still steeped in conservative tradition. The film shows how these women, different as they were in class and social background, broke taboos and dismissed conventional wisdom to fulfill their overpowering passion for filmmaking. Women Who Loved Cinema takes us to the past and brings us, seamlessly, to the present day. Aziza ... Fatema ... Behidja ... Amina ... Assia … Mary... theirs is a story that will remain indelibly etched in the memory of Egyptian cinema.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ar
Release Date: 2002-06-28
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Arab Camera
1987-01-02
Arab Camera
Overview: Focusing on key Arab films produced in the last 20 years. Férid Boughedir traces the development of the film-makers' concern to produce more socially aware cinema. Themes include the issue of Palestinian homeland rights and the nature of Arab identity. The film-makers also share a desire to develop a strong poetic tradition.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1987-01-02
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Cinématon XIV
1981-11-08
Cinématon XIV
Overview: Reel 14 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1981-11-08
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