An Egyptian Story
This recurring cycle is an opportunity to watch or re-watch classics from cinema history, or films representative of certain national cinematographies, trends or eras, on the big screen.
After suffering a heart attack while shooting the final sequence of his film, a filmmaker revisits the milestones of his life during open-heart surgery in London.
Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine was born into into an Egyptian Christian family of Lebanese and Melkite Greek Catholic origin. At 21, he left his native Egypt to study film in Los Angeles. Three years later, in 1948, he returned and was given the opportunity to direct his first feature film, Papa Amin, released in 1950. He was invited to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in 1951 for Son of the Nile. In 1954, he launched Omar Sharif’s acting career with The Desert Demon. However, the greatest film of his career is perhaps Cairo Station (1958), a masterpiece that cemented his place among the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Frequently confronted with censorship, Youssef Chahine never stopped speaking out against ignorance and fundamentalism, all while exploring a wide range of stylistic approaches—from musical melodrama to historical reconstruction, from autobiographical reflection to ballet.
