Archive for the ‘Egypt Movies’ Category
Adrift on the Nile
April 1st, 2010 | 
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Description
In “Adrift on the Nile” we meet a group of hedonistic middle-aged friends who gather each night on a luxurious houseboat for dancing, love-making and smoking hashish. When a young news reporter visits the houseboat to write a story on the group, she is outraged to learn the tragic depths of their social alienation. Based on the novel by the Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, this 1971 production offers a revealing look at the Egyptian elite on the eve of the 1967 War. By this time, Nasser had ushered in an age of enormous social change, leaving the sons and daughters of the old bourgeoisie high and dry. Directed by Hussein Kamal, “Adrift on the Nile” features the atmospheric cinematography of Mostapha Emam and a delightful musical number in color. DVD EXTRAS include English and French subtitles, rare original trailer and filmographies.
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The Emigrant
Description
Filled with beautiful location shots of Egyptian ruins and lush re-enactments of decadent cult rituals, Youssef Chahine’s The Emigrant is a fascinating retelling of the biblical tale of Joseph, told from an Egyptian perspective. Ram (“Joseph”), tired of his family’s backward superstitious life and bullying brothers, wants to travel Egypt to study agriculture. His brothers travel with him across the Sinai but suddenly sell him to an Egyptian who works for a regional military leader, who is impressed by Ram’s drive and grants him desolate land outside the capital. Ram soon finds himself a pawn in the political and sexual games between Amihar and his wife Simihit, a high priestess of the Cult of Amun.
Destiny
- THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER
Product Description
France released, PAL/Region 2 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Arabic ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ),Arabic ( Dolby Digital Stereo ),English ( Subtitles ),French ( Subtitles ),WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access,SYNOPSIS: In twelfth-century Cordoba, the Caliph orders all books written by the eminent philosopher Averroe’s to be burnt, to mollify the fundamentalists. Averroe’s family and followers decide to make copies of his books and smuggle them across the border. Despite the pressure from fundamentalists, human knowledge prevails and the influence of Averroe’s teaching extended through the Enlightenment to the present day. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival,
Fatma
Description
The legendary diva Umm Kulthum stars in this classic film about a poor nurse who falls in love with the son of one of her wealthy patients. Abandoned by her husband while pregnant, she must fight her husband’s wealthy and powerful family in court. A rare treat, this film features nine of Umm Kulthum’s most famous songs by composers Mohamed Al Asabgui and Riad Al Sunbati. DVD EXTRAS include English and French subtitles, scene access and filmographies.
Afrita Hanem
Description
Meet Asfour (Farid Al Atrache), a poor singer/actor who stumbles upon a magic lamp and its wish-granting genie (Samia Gamal). When he uses his new-found power to woo his gold-digging girlfriend away from her rich suitor, Asfour discovers that his genie has a few wishes of her own. Sure to delight and entertain, this classic film stars two of Egypt’s cinematic legends in an innovative and endearing blend of comedy, fantasy and musical genres. DVD EXTRAS include English and French subtitles, rare original trailer and filmographies.
Alexandria…Why?
Amazon.com
Set in the Egypt during and after World War II, Youssef Chahine’s autobiographical drama of his youth in Cairo is a bright, bustling mosaic of a country embroiled in conflict and struggling with its identity. Centered on the story of high school student Yehia Mourad (Mohsen Mohiedine), Chahine’s cinematic alter ego, it’s national history through a personal perspective and the first film autobiography ever in Egyptian cinema. As the strains of nationalism set Arabs against British soldiers, political factions against one another, and races and cultures at odds, Yehia escapes through theater and the movies, dreaming of Hollywood as he stages his own plays and theatrical reviews until he’s swept up in student activism. No stranger to challenging conventions and taboos, Chahine features an interfaith romance between a Jewish woman and a Muslim activist and a homosexual relationship between Yehia’s wealthy uncle and a young British soldier among his many stories. In fact, he packs the film so full that the colors threaten to bleed together, but Chahine masterfully keeps the film coherent and clear while driving it forward at a racing pace. The action at times abruptly jumps from one thread to another, as if matching Yehia’s torn loyalties between art and political action, but the tonal shifts only add another layer of richness to the passion Chahine has lavished on this film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Berlin in 1979 (Chahine’s first major festival prize), and was followed by two other autobiographical films, An Egyptian Story and Alexandria Again and Forever, which became known as the Alexandria Trilogy. –Sean Axmaker
Closed Doors, The
Product Description
Directed by Youssef Chahines longtime assistant, The Closed Doors touches on several taboos in contemporary Egyptian society, examining their social and political implications.
Set during the Gulf War, it tells the story of Mohamad, a highly impressionable young man who embraces fundamentalist ideas as a way of dealing with the confusion of adolescence and sexual awakening.
This powerful first feature by one of Egypt s most promising young directors tackles complex themes like oppression, jealousy, virtue, the love ideal and violence in an uncompromising way.
In Arabic with English Subtitles.
An Egyptian Story
Amazon.com
The second of Youssef Chahine’s autobiographical Alexandria Trilogy takes place largely in the mind of Chahine’s cinematic alter ego, Yehia Mourad (Nour El Cherif), or, to be more accurate, his torso. Rushed into emergency open-heart surgery after an on-set heart attack, Yehia is put through a fantasy trial in a courtroom situated in his rib cage (a rather theatrical-looking contraption of white sheets draped over wooden ribs) as he flashes back on his life. Chahine embraces the absurdity of the silly device with fanciful fun (his inner child rebels against the stodgy grownup by crawling through his veins and undoing the surgery) but it’s the flashbacks that carry the film’s power. Think of it as Chahine’s All That Jazz, only less flashy and more thoughtful. The young director struggles within the industry, sacrificing his vision and his politics in commercial compromises, sacrificing his family for his art, still dreaming of Hollywood while toiling in the low-budget environs of Egypt.
Fans of Chahine will recognize startling re-creations of two of his most famous films, Cairo Station and The Sparrow, but you don’t need to know his work to feel the strain of his conflicts. Inspired by his real-life bypass surgery and the self reassessment it triggered, Chahine is more critical than you might expect; he forgives himself his sins, naturally, but never quite lets himself off the hook. Followed by Alexandria Again and Forever, which stars Chahine himself as Yehia. –Sean Axmaker
Cairo Station
Product Description
Youssef Chahine’s masterpiece. A street level expose of sexual obsession and working class madness that s as grimy and claustrophobic as its Cairo railway station setting. From its noirish opening scene, in which a scruffy newspaper hawker discovers a rag strewn living quarters filled with cutout girlie pictures and intones, I knew then that something was desperately wrong, it s clear that the film has departed from the upper class realms of typical 1950s Arab cinema. Chahine moves his camera as fluidly as a sleepwalker through a nightmarish world where, as luggage porters strive to unionize and all sections of society swarm along the tracks, the crippled street vendor Qinawi (played by Chahine himself) feverishly desires a brash, beautiful and utterly uninterested lemonade seller, with dangerous results. Combining Italian neo-realism, Egyptian romanticism and overheated film noir, Cairo Station was unlike anything anyone had seen on movie screens before.
