ABU DHABI // A photographic tribute to the life of Youssef Chahine, the Egyptian film director who died six weeks ago, is to be staged at the Emirates Palace hotel during the second annual Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) in the capital next month. Chahine was internationally acclaimed for a career that spanned 58 years and included films critical of American foreign policy in the Middle East, as well as Muslim fundamentalism and Egypt's authoritarian regime. He died on July 27.
After studying acting in California in the 1940s, he made his directorial debut in 1950 with Baba Amin and went on to make some 40 films, cementing a name for himself as the most independent of Arab filmmakers. He is also credited with launching the career of Omar Sharif, who starred in his 1954 film The Blazing Sun and went on to star in Hollywood blockbusters such as Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and Lawrence of Arabia.
"The exhibition contains 100 frames of rare photos and artefacts and was prepared in Cairo by a team of experts in film exhibitions," said Nashwa al Ruwaini, MEIFF's executive director, who was voted in 2006 one of the three most influential women in the Middle East. "We decided to hold it in honour of Chahine's life as he was one of the most respected and talented directors of the Arab world. 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.
"He 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." Mohamed Khalaf al Mazrouei, vice chairman of the film festival, echoed the praise: "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."
The frames for each of the images on display were designed by an Egyptian artist, Naji Shaker, and the opening of the exhibition, which runs from Oct 10-19, will be attended by some of the leading stars of Egyptian cinema, including actresses Yusra, Leile Alawi and Lubluba, the film director Khaled Youssef, and the screenwriter Nasser Abdel Rahman. Members of Chahine's family, including his niece, producer and director Marian Khoury, will also attend.
Chahine was honoured at this year's Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, with a Piazza Grande screening of his historical romance Destiny. The International Venice Film Festival, which finished last week, was also dedicated to him. On his death Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, described Chahine as "very attached to his Egypt but open to the universe" and said he sought "to denounce censorship, fanaticism and fundamentalism".
hkhalaf@thenational.ae
