Highlights of Egyptian films up to the 1970s
This book is a collection of stills of the Egyptian films from the 1930s up to the 1970s. Mostly it is a brief visual documentation of the changes based on political influences and social conditions. It is a list of the best Egyptian films during that period of time.
The mid 1930s mark the real start of the Egyptian film industry. In 1935, Talaat Harb, a leading Egyptian economist, founded Studio Misr.
وردة البيضاء Al-Warda Al-Bida
(White Rose, 1933, Mohamed Karim)
Othman wi Ali
(Othman and Ali, 1939, Togo Mizrahi)
الو Lasheen
(1938, Fritz Kramp)
A thematic breakthrough encouraging young citizens to liberate themselves from the constraints of the authority and government employment.
سالمة في خير
The movies also became a forum for the leading male and female romantic singers of the time, ushering an era of great musical movies.
Salama fi Kheir
(Salama is Good, 1937, Niazi Mustafa)
Al-Azima (Determination, 1939, Kamal Selim)
For the first time an Egyptian film-maker dealt realistically with a social problem drawn from real life and conditions in Egypt.
Soon stories had underlying messages which began to address the social conditions and abuse.
عنتر و عبلة
Antar wi Abla (Antar and Abla, 1945, Niazi Mustafa)
Post World War II, all films had an obligatory happy ending, lots of belly dancing and even more singing.
لعبةالست
Li'bit Al-Sit (Woman's Play, 1946, Walieddin Sameh)
Gazal Al-Banat
(Girls' Wooing, 1949, Anwar Wagdi
Egyptian cinema was founded in Alexandria, which was the biggest cosmopolitan city in the Middle East. When you observe the earlier Egyptian movies you find how liberal, and sophisticated they are up until the nationalization of the Egyptian cinema.Â
In the beginning of the Nasser era, there was a concentration on religious and nationalistic themes.
لحنالخلود Lahn Al-Khuloud
(Immortal Music, 1952, Henri Barakat)
Mustafa Kamel (1952, Ahmed Badrakhan)
Many movies were essentially propaganda about the revolution, and criticizing the aristocracy. However, it is quite interesting because the formation of censorship materialized at that time.
Raya wa Skina Raya and Sakina, 1953, Salah Abu Seif)
Siraa fil-Wadi (Conflict in the Valley, 1954, Youssef Chahine)
Nasser wanted to stress the religious identity of Egypt, which was a strategy to combat foreign influence.
موت
Hayat Aw Mowt (Life or Death, 1954, Kamal El-Sheikh)
حياة أو
Ranit Al-Khulkhal (Anklet Ring, 1956, Mahmoud Zulfiqar)
دربالمهابيل
دعاء الكروان Doaa Al-Karawan (The Morning Bird’s Prayer, 1959, Henri Barakat)
Darb Al-Mahabeel (Al-Mahabeel Alley, 1956, Tawfiq Saleh)
Shabab Imraa
شباب امراة
(Woman's Youth, 1956, Salah Abu Seif)
Samara (1956, Hassan El-Seifi)
The 1940s and 1950s gave rise to raqs sharqi or oriental dance. Dancers like Samia Gamal, Horiya, Tahia Carioca, Naima Akef and many more rose thanks to the film industry.
صراع في النيل
Siraa fil-Nil
(Conflict in the Nile, 1959, Atef Salem)
Al-Garima wal-’Iqab (Crime and Punishment, 1957, Ibrahim Imara)
Bab Al-Hadeed (Cairo Central Station, 1958, Youssef Chahine)
اء و األرض Bein Al-Samaa wal-Ard
(Between Heaven and Earth, 1959, Salah Abu Seif)
Hassan wa Naïma (Hassan and Naïma, 1959, Henri Barakat)
بين السما
Rigal fil-Asifa (Men in the Storm, 1960, Hossameddin Mustafa)
Fi Baytina Ragul (A Man in Our House, 1961, Henri Barakat)
بداية ونهاية
Bidaya wa Nihaya
(Beginning and End, 1960, Salah Abu Seif)
In the 1960s the films produced were realist films in order to confront the problems within society and to educate the people.
ام العروسة Umm Al-Arousa
(Mother of the Bride, 1963, Atef Salem)
Al-Lis wal-Kilab (The Thief and the Dogs, 1962, Kamal El-Sheikh)
Al-Nasser Saleheddin (Salaadin, 1963, Youssef Chahine)
الحرام Al-Haram
(The Sin, 1965, Henri Barakat)
Khan Al-Khalili (1966, Atef Salem)
Al-Boustaghi (The Postman, 1968, Hussein Kamal)
From the mid 60's onwards, cinema began to deteriorate and partly because of the Nasser Regime, corruption began to seep into every branch of the industry.Â
Scarce financing as well as the spread of TV caused a dramatic decline of the once flourishing Egyptian cinema in the following years.
Qandil Umm Hashim (The Holy Lantern, 1968, Kamal Attiya)
شيء من الخوف
Shai' min Al-Khowf (Something of Fear, 1969, Hussein Kamal)
One of the seminal works of the Egyptian cinema history. It played a lot a symbolism and allegory.
Al-Ard
زوزو
(The Land, 1970, Youssef Chahine)
Early 70's, the cynicism started to grow more and musicals started to vanish, movies with more of an edge to them, with a lot of allegories, because you could not criticize the government in a direct way anymore.
Zawgati wal-Kalb (My Wife and the Dog, 1971, Saïd Marzouq)
خلي بالك من ز Khalli Balak min Zouzou (Pay Attention to Zouzou, 1972, Hassan El-Imam)
Leil wa Qudban (Night and Prison Bars, 1973, Ashraf Fahmi)
حمامالمالطيلي
Hamam Al-Malatili (The Malatili Bath, 1973, Salah Abu Seif)
Al-'Usfour (The Sparrow, 1974, Youssef Chahine)
Al-’Usfur was a very overt allegory about the 1967 defeat and the failure of the entire Arab world to unite. At the time the film was banned.
العصفور
Abnaa Al-Samt (Children of Silence, 1974, Mohamed Radi)
المومياء Al-Mummiya (The Night of Counting the Years, 1975, Shadi Abdel-Salam)
The film employed a new visual style and the dialogue is entirely in classical Arabic, a very unusual trait for an Egyptian film.
Za'ir Al-Fagr (Dawn's Visitor, 1975, Mamdouh Shoukri)
نطلق الرصاص 'Ala man Nutliq Al-Rasas (Whom do we Fire at, 1975, Kamal El-Sheikh)
أريد حال على من Uridu Hallan
(I Want a Solution, 1975, Saïd Marzouq)
In the 1970s, the bulk of the industry moved to Lebanon, and the quality of the movies began to decline.
الكرنك Al-Karnak
(1975, Ali Badrakhan)
The film was severely critical of the Nasser Era and dealt with the negative aspects of the revolution in 1952.
For almost the entire decade of the 70's, cinema became extremely liberal. Movies were relying on a selling point. “The bikinis and sex.”
Al-Muzniboun (The Sinners, 1976, Saïd Marzouq)
عودة االبن الضال
Awdat Al-Ibn Al-Dal (Return of the Prodigal Son, 1976, Youssef Chahine)
دائرة االنتقام Da'irat Al-Intiqam
(Circle of Vengeance, 1976, Samir Seif)
Al-Saqa Matt (The Waterbearer is Dead, 1977, Salah Abu Seif)
Al-Mahfaza Mi'aya (The Wallet is with Me, 1978, Mohamed Abdel-Aziz)
كندريةليه؟ Iskendriya Leih?
(Alexandria, Why? 1979, Youssef Chahine)
The film was banned for its daring exploration of cultural, gender, and sexual identity in war-time Alexandria. The film follows various relationships, including romances between a Muslim and Jew, and between two men.
االسك
“I myself find it difficult to watch the movies of the 80’s because not only did they chronicle the beginning of the pitfalls of the open door policies, but also the beginning of the Mubarak era.
If you compare the movies of the 70’s and 80’s, you can tell the huge discrepancy that Egyptian society went through in those few years: the rise of religious conservatism, the sense of chaos, the overpopulation, the increase in poverty, the rise of the Nouveau Riche, which is one of the most obsessive things for these film makers and that was the 80’s. By that time, Egyptian industry was at a low point, and it continued during the 90’s.” Joseph Fahim
References Darwish, M. (1998). Dream makers on the nile. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press. Farid, S. (2007). Al ahram weekly. Retrieved from http://weekly. ahram.org.eg/ Shafik, V. (2007). Arab cinema: History and cultural identity. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press. Green, J. (2008). Egyptian movie posters. Retrieved from http:// www.musicman.com/mp/egy.html Fahim, J., & El Malky, R. (2011). Interview by B. Eyre [Personal Interview]. History of egyptian film. , Cairo, Egypt.
Naima Abdelwahed @00024525 VIS 202 Section 01 Spring 2012