On July 27 of this year, another internationally famous filmmaker died without much fanfare. As with the passing of Italian director Dino Risi, the death of Youssef Chahine received little more than the standard newspaper obituary. Once again, a cinematic artist was slighted, especially considering his career spanned six decades and consisted of more than 40 films.

            Though Chahine was never well known in the United States, even among film enthusiasts, he was Egypt’s most famous director for many years. Few realize that Egyptian film-goers have long enjoyed its own cinema, which matured in the years after WWII. At one point, the Egyptian film industry was so successful that Cairo was dubbed “the Hollywood of the Arab cinema” during the 1960s-an era when the countries of post-colonial Africa were struggling to launch their own film industries, with uneven results. Since then, Egyptian cinema has had its ups and downs, with production dropping in the 1970s, soaring in the 1980s, and faltering again during the 1990s because of video piracy. Recent incentives and a new distribution company have raised hopes that it will thrive again. Through it all, Youssef Chahine managed to direct award-winning films of merit and distinction, at times single-handedly representing the filmmaking of his country and his continent. He certainly earned his place in the film history books.

            For those of us who remember the first time we saw the tall, dark, and handsome star of Funny Girl, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia, Chahine deserves to be remembered for another reason. He was the director who discovered Omar Sharif. Before a drop-dead gorgeous Sharif galloped across the desert in 70mm splendor-on a camel, no less-to rescue Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, he was a popular star in his native Egypt, having already made 22 films, three of them with Chahine. Sharif would later cast aside his stardom to play professional bridge on the international circuit, but he was definitely an irresistible force on the big screen during the 1960s.  (Did I mention he was handsome, even on a camel?)

A YOUNG OMAR SHARIF

            Born in Alexandria on January 25, 1926, Youssef Chahine grew up amidst the chaos of WWII and the Arab-Israeli tension of the postwar era. Despite the friction and conflict, he received a good education at the French missionary school, followed by a stint at Victoria College and then one year at the University of Alexandria. Victoria College had a reputation as a cosmopolitan institution that advocated tolerance and acceptance, which had an impact on the young Chahine. He was also enamored with Hollywood movies in general and Gene Kelly in particular, and in the late 1940s, he came to America to study at the Pasadena Playhouse. There he was mentored by stage director Leonore Shanivese and befriended by actors Robert Preston and Victor Jory.

            Graduating from the Playhouse in 1948, Chahine returned to Egypt to try to break into the film industry with his first script, Son of the Nile. He did not have much luck, but he managed to get work on some Italian productions, including serving as an assistant director to Italian filmmaker Gianni Vernuccio and as an assistant cameraman to cinematographer Alvise Orfanelli. Orfanelli introduced Chahine to the Zeyad Production Co., and the Egyptian-based film company hired the novice filmmaker to direct Daddy Amin (Baba Amin). The success of Daddy Amin led the company to produce Son of the Nile, and Chahine’s directing career took off via a series of genre films designed to entertain Egyptian audiences.

DADDY AMIN, CHAHINE'S FIRST FILM

            It was during this period that the young filmmaker discovered Omar Sharif, who had also attended Victoria College. Some accounts claim that Chahine first saw the handsome young man sitting at an outdoor café in Cairo, but that sounds a bit like a “Lana Turner was discovered in a drugstore” story, so I am skeptical. The son of a wealthy Lebanese merchant and an Egyptian mother, Sharif was born Michael Shalhoub. After being tapped by Chahine to star in The Blazing Sky (aka Sky of Hell, Struggle in the Valley, or Siraa-Fil Wadi) in 1953, he changed his name to Omar El-Sharif and converted to Islam.

            The film also starred Faten Hamama, an Egyptian actress who had been in the movies since childhood. The Blazing Sky is a Romeo and Juliet-type tale set on a sugarcane plantation, with Sharif playing a wealthy agriculture graduate who uses his education to help peasant farmers. During production, Sharif and Hamama fell in love, much to the delight of Egyptian film fans. When they married in 1955, their relationship generated the same level of excitement and publicity in Egypt that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s romance would in America a few years later. Needless to say The Blazing Sky was a pan-Arabic hit as well as Egypt’s entry into the Cannes International Film Festival that year. Sharif starred in Chahine’s next film, Demon in the Desert (aka Devil in the Desert, or Chytan el sahra), and then Dark Waters (Siraa Fil-Mina).

            Though his work consisted primarily of genre flicks like melodramas and thrillers during this time, Chahine’s films stood out because of his craftsmanship and skill with actors. He had been influenced by the tight narrative structures and fast pacing of Hollywood films, while his experiences as an actor at the Pasadena Playhouse helped him get good performances from his stars.

At the end of the 1950s, his style began to evolve to reveal an influence from Italian Neorealism. He became interested in stories about economic disparity involving socially marginal characters who speak in a common vernacular, which resulted in one of his best films, Cairo Station (Bab el Hadid). Set in Cairo’s main railroad station, the story involves the everyday lives of the luggage carriers, paper sellers, and soft-drink peddlers who scratch out a meager living. Chahine himself stars in the film as a handicapped newspaper peddler who loves the beautiful saucy girl who sells lemonade. His obsession with her compels him to kidnap her, which does not end well. In exploring the sexuality, pain, obsessions, and compulsions of these disenfranchised characters, he avoids turning them into stereotypes. Even the most melodramatic scenes are handled in a natural, Neorealist style, making them even more gripping and tense. When the girl’s younger brother falls on the tracks, she snatches him away just as a train whizzes by, a stunt performed by the actors themselves-no stuntmen, no CGI, no fast-paced cutting. The drama of the scene was preserved by Chahine’s simple but effective camerawork.

CHAHINE IN CAIRO STATION

         Later, during the 1970s, his style evolved again. He began exploring the use of fragmented structures, with flashbacks and montages of random and disparate images, including documentary footage. Some claim a heart attack instigated this new phase of his style and career, but it may have been influenced by the work of European and American directors from that same time frame who were also pushing the boundaries of classic filmmaking styles and techniques. This more experimental approach suited certain films, including his 1978 autobiographical masterwork Alexandria Why? (Iskanderiya-leh). Set in Chahine’s hometown during WWII, the film tells the story of an aristocrat who lures English soldiers to their deaths as Rommel’s army approaches the city. One of the characters in the film is a young Egyptian who is conflicted because while he loves his country, he also loves Shakespeare and American movies. The film is about cultural identity and the pressures and influences that both shape it and tear away at it. Alexandria Why? was banned in some Arab countries, but that did not deter Chahine. It became the first in a series of autobiographical films that also included Egyptian Story, Alexandria Again and Again, and Alexandria . . . New York.

ALEXANDRIA WHY?

            Considering the part of the world in which he lived and worked, Chahine and his films were naturally affected by the ubiquitous political unrest that is synonymous with the Middle East. Those who know a lot more than I do about Chahine claim that while not all of his films have political stories, all of his films are political. Destiny, for example, is a biography of a medieval Muslim philosopher, but it also serves as an attack on contemporary fundamentalism. While Chahine loved his country, he could also be critical of it. In 1968, he directed Once Upon a Time The Nile (El-Naas Wa El-Nil), which was about the construction of the Aswan Dam from the point of view of the engineers and workers who were on the front lines. The film was the first Soviet-Egyptian coproduction, but neither side was happy with Chahine’s realistic depiction of the dam’s construction, which had been grueling and difficult for those involved. Both the Egyptian and Soviet financiers were hoping for a mythic treatment of the story and demanded re-shoots and re-edits. The film was finally released in 1972. He also made more overtly political films. The Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1967 and 1973 were the subjects of The Sparrow and The Return of the Prodigal Son, with Chahine clearly articulating the Egyptian point of view.

            Whatever the politics, Chahine was a true auteur who made personal films about controversial issues, including globalization, corruption in his home country, terrorism, and American hegemony. He was a stylish, sophisticated artist who depicted the dreams and fears of a people whose popular culture and entertainment traditions are unknown in the U.S. Still, many of his films are so universal that the characters are relatable and their problems familiar, reflecting Chahine’s statement, “I would like to be able to communicate with all of humanity . . . .”