Chahine to be honoured at film festival

Film news An exhibition detailing the director's life will go on display at the Emirates Palace during the second annual MEIFF.

A leading light of Egyptian cinema for more than half a century, Youssef Chahine died on July 27 in a Cairo hospital.

In the third major homage to Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine, since his death on July 27 2008, a photo exhibition detailing his personal and professional life will go on display at the Emirates Palace during the second annual Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), to be held in the capital from October 10 to 19. Chahine was previously honoured at the 61st Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, with a Piazza Grande screening of his historical romance Destiny, which had first screened at the same venue in 1997. As well as Locarno, this year's Venice Film Festival, held from August 27 to Sept 6, was entirely dedicated to the deceased Egyptian director, where the tribute film was Cairo Station, a 1958 classic that Chahine starred in and directed, was shown. The MEIFF's initiative to organise an exhibition detailing Chahine's cinematic career stems from a need to show appreciation towards a career in cinema that spanned 58 years. "Chahine is one of the markers of cinematic art and was one of the greatest symbols of Arabic cinema in the world in close to half a century," says Mohamed Khalaf al Mazrouei, vice chairman of the festival. Starting with Baba Amin, his 1950 directorial debut, Chahine directed some 40 films over the course of his life, cementing a name for himself as the most independent of Arab filmmakers by tackling controversial themes and varied genres regularly in his films, as well as a deep interest in Middle Eastern and Egyptian history and society. Chahine, who studied acting in California in the 1940s, became one of Egypt's most distinguished film directors. His work has been critical of US foreign policy in the Middle East, as well as of Muslim fundamentalism and Egypt's authoritarian regime. The exhibition to be held in Chahine's honour "contains 100 rare photos and several rare artifacts...[and] was prepared in Cairo by a team of experts in film exhibitions," explains Nashwa al Ruwaini, executive director of the MEIFF, who was also voted as one of the top three most influential women in the Middle East in 2006 and the 20th most powerful businesswoman in the Arab World by Forbes Magazine. "We decided to hold the exhibition in honour of Chahine's life as he was one of the most respected and talented directors of the Arab World," says Ms al Ruwaini. "Since the 1950s, Chahine has continued to present to our screens the serious, humorous, sad and thought-provoking films that will be remembered for all of time. Chahine was one of the founders of film in the Arab world, and because of this I felt we owed it to him and his family to honour him by exhibiting to the public these rare images." The frames for each of the images on display were designed by Egyptian artist Naji Shaker, and the opening of the exhibition will be attended by the leading performers in Egyptian cinema, including veteran actresses Yusra, Leile Alawi and Lubluba, film director Khaled Youssef, screenwriter Nasser Abdel Rahman, and a number of Chahine's own family members, including his niece, producer and director Marian Khoury. It is of little surprise that tributes to the filmmaker's life and work - a career that has also been credited with bringing the actor Omar Sharif to the world's attention - have become a priority in the programmes of this year's leading film festivals. News of Chahine's death had even elicited a tribute from French president Nicholas Sarkozy, who described the director as "very attached to his Egypt but open to the universe," and said that he sought "to denounce censorship, fanaticism and fundamentalism."
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