Youssef Chahine

Chaos, This Is? (2007)

Hatem is a corrupt police officer, who loves his neighbor Nour, who in turn loves the prosecutor, Sherif. Hatem tries to win Nour's attention even if by force. ...

To Each His Own Cinema (2007)

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state ...

Alexandria... New York (2004)

An enthralling look at the relationship between America and the Arab World from an Arab perspective. It tells the story of Yehia, a renowned Egyptian filmmaker whose life has been shaped by a pair of disrupted love affairs, one with an American woman named ...

September 11 (2002)

An anthology of short films inspired by the events of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks. ...

Silence... We're Rolling (2001)

Malak is a star singer who lives with her mother and her daughter, Loula, in her villa after her divorce. She falls in love with an opportunist called Lam'ey, so her daughter sets out to expose him with the help of her lover, a driver called Nasser, and th ...

The Other (1999)

Adam is the son of a wealthy Egyptian-American family who is studying at UCLA and returns home for a brief vacation. Upon his arrival he meets beautiful reporter Hanane, with whom he begins an intense love affair, and eventually they marry. Trouble arises ...

Destiny (1997)

In the 12th century's Andalusia lives Ibn Rushd a prominent Islamic philosopher with his wife Zeinab and daughter Salma. The principality is ruled by Khalifa ElMansour who has two sons, ElNasser, an intellectual that likes Ibn Rush and is in love with his ...

Lumière & Company (1995)

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) ...

The Emigrant (1994)

The biblical tale of Joseph is told from an Egyptian perspective in this interesting character study. In this film, Joseph is called Ram. Ram, tired of his family's backward superstitious life, and tired of being picked on by his brothers, wants to go to E ...

Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine (1991)

This concise masterpiece began as a commission by French TV for the news series Envoyé spécial. By filming Cairo with his unique sense of artistic digression, Chahine transformed this portrait of a city into the self-portrait of a filmmaker. ...

Alexandria Again and Forever (1989)

Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in "Alexandria, Why?" and "An Egyptian Story". Obsessed with Amr, the handsome a ...

The Sixth Day (1986)

Egypt, 1947: in the midst of a cholera outbreak. A washerwoman tries to take care of her family, while at the same time resisting the advances of a charming suitor who's half her age. ...

Adieu Bonaparte (1985)

This big-budget historical epic from acclaimed Egyptian director Youssef Chahine features a crazed turn by Patrice Chereau as Napoleon Bonaparte. The film, an Egyptian-French co-production, deals with Napoleon's occupation of Alexandria and its effect on a ...

An Egyptian Story (1982)

After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his ...

Alexandria… Why? (1979)

Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constra ...

Shafiqa and Metwally (1978)

The authorities summon many young men for forced labor in the Suez Canal, so Metwally leaves his sister Shafiqa alone with their old grandfather, whereupon Shafiqa is forced to succumb to the temptations of Diab, the district chief's son. As their sinful r ...

The Water-Carrier Is Dead (1977)

The story of the friendship that develops between two men with quite different world views. One, a water carrier whose wife has died twenty years before, spends his days thinking about her. The other, who works in the funeral business, spends his life in t ...

Return of the Prodigal Son (1976)

Freed after spending years in prison, an activist's homecoming turns into a dark affair as his disillusion clashes with his family's expectations. Demonstrating Chahine's eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and p ...

The Sparrow (1972)

Set shortly before and during the Six Day War in June of 1967, The Sparrow follows a young police officer stationed in a small village in Upper Egypt whose inhabitants suffer from the harassment of a corrupt businessman. ...

The People and the Nile (1972)

The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers, workers, Egyptians, and Soviets. ...

The Choice (1971)

When a free-spirited sailor is found murdered, his twin brother, a famous novelist, is the prime suspect. Investigators uncover a possible liaison between the dead sailor and the writer's wife, and also learn that Sayed's successful fictions owed much to t ...

Sands of Gold (1971)

Tarek loves his cousin Zubaida and travels to Spain to work in bullfighting under a pseudonym. Zubaida comes to Spain in search of her lover, but despite his pleas for her to return to Morocco, she continues to follow him. ...

The Land (1970)

Set in 1933, the mayor informs the peasants that the share of irrigation of their land will be split equally between them and feudal lord Mahmoud Bey. The peasants send Mohamed Effendi to submit a petition to the government. Mahmoud Bey then proposes a pro ...

The Nile and the Life (1968)

Renegotiating the representational paradigm of nationhood the film draws a heterogeneous picture of Egyptian society as well as Soviet workers as they embarked on the momentous dam enterprise. The films presents a vision of a nation deep rooted in unity as ...

The Feast of Mairun (1967)

A film about the sacred oil used by the church during special occasions in Egypt. ...

The Ring Seller (1965)

In a peaceful village, the mayor, seeing that the population is bored with tranquility, invents the mystical figure of Rajeh, and tells stories to villagers about the exploits of Rajeh, who kills and maims and steals. One day the mayor tells the villagers ...

Dawn of a New Day (1964)

The story of a 40-year-old married woman who has fallen into idleness and does not know how to approach the revolutionary events in her country. She finds a new meaning in life when she falls in love with an aspiring young student. "I shot FAGR YOM GUEDID ...

Saladin (1963)

The first Sultan of Egypt and Syria leads the Muslim military campaign against the invading Christians from Europe during the Third Crusade. ...

A Man in My Life (1961)

As Hamdy fights with a fisherman and kills him in front of his daughter, he goes to prison as the fisherman's daughter goes blind. After his release, he tries to atone for his sin by approaching her. They fall in love and get married, but when he finds out ...

Lovers' Call (1960)

Beautiful dancer Warda finds herself homeless. She finds a job at a cotton ginning plant. She loves Abdo who runs the plant, and she kills the elderly Shahawi, the plant owner who wanted to assault her and runs away with Abdo, while Metwally, the owner's s ...

In Your Hands (1960)

The story deals with an upscale family that is down on its luck. As the butcher Madbouly foots the bills for the entire family, the authoritative Berlanty is the one in charge. When the carpenter Ragab falls for Madbouly's niece Amal, Berlanty insists he f ...

Forever Yours (1959)

A young employee tries to cover for his colleague, whom he loves, after he discovers that she embezzled money from the company they work in. As he gets accused of her crime, he gets involved in her husband's murder and tries to escape. ...

Jamila, the Algerian (1958)

Djamila, a young Algerian woman living with her brother Hadi and her uncle Mustafa in the Casbah district of Algiers under the French occupation of Algeria, sees the full extent of injustice, tyranny and cruelty on his compatriots by French soldiers. Jamil ...

Cairo Station (1958)

Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually ...

My One And Only Love (1957)

Farid is forced to marry his cousin, Yasmina, after their uncle leaves them a big inheritance, provided that the two get married. They decide to get married on paper and separate after receiving the inheritance, but during the honeymoon in Aswan,they fall ...

Farewell, Love (1956)

Navy officer Wahid arrives in a military hospital, with a kidney failure, his days are numbered. The inmates try to cheer him up , while his nurse gets closer to him, and soon kindness turns to love. ...

Struggle in the Harbor (1956)

Ragab, a poor sailor, returns home to Alexandria after three years of absence, during which he tried to save money to marry his one true love, Hamedah. But there's trouble on the harbor, and with an old friend. ...

The Devil of the Desert (1954)

Essam, a young bedouin who discovers the cruel tyranny of his ruler after people from his tribe are unjustly murdered, decides to overthrow him. ...

The Blazing Sun (1954)

A wealthy landlord floods and destroys a village on purpose to prevent the people living there from making a profit off their crops. What he doesn't know is that his own daughter, Amal, is in love with Ahmed, a young man from the village. ...

Women Without Men (1953)

A brother disagrees with his sister which makes her move to live with her older sister in the countryside. She finds her sister living a harsh life and when the brother goes to visit them, he's surprised by the strict way imposed by the sister at home. ...

Lady of The Train (1952)

Fikria is a singer who's married to Farid ,the gambling addict. When she's traveling by train, she gets in an accident and a peasant treats her. After she returns home,her husband asks her to stay hidden to get the insurance money to pay for his gambling d ...

The Great Clown (1952)

Shehata Effendi is a clerk for a wealthy woman who is in dispute with her husband. Her husband divorced her a third time, so they resort to Shehata to marry her. Then the wealthy wife dies and he inherits her fortune, prompting him to think of marrying his ...

Son of the Nile (1951)

Hemaidah is a Farmer who hates country life. He hates working in fields and taking care of the animals in his farm. Though unsatisfied with her, he marries Zebeidah, a woman in the same village. ...

Baba Amin (1950)

1950 Cairo, Amin is a simple employee who lives with his family of three, his wife Zahira, son Nabil and daughter Hoda. Amin's friend Mabrouk convinces Amin to invest his life savings in a project, which he promises, will get him rich. Amin agrees but forg ...

Let's Talk (2019)

A mother and her daughter explore together the trajectory of four generations of women from their family, an Egyptian family from the Levant where life and cinema have been intimately linked and still are. A cross look between family archives where the rea ...

Into Studio Masr (2019)

Ouija (2006)

Two strangers try to solve a mystery that revolves around both of their tragic pasts. At the heart of the mystery lies a mystic board with an ability to kill. ...

Women Who Loved Cinema (2002)

Six strong-willed women whose adventurous streak changed the face of film industry in early twentieth century Egypt – a time when the country was, despite the liberal ripples, still steeped in conservative tradition. The film shows how these women, diffe ...

Kiarostami in Close up (2000)

A documentary that focuses on Abbas Kiarostami's cinematic philosophy talking to himself and other figures, and also seeks the opinion about his works both inside and outside his homeland. ...

Concerto in Darb Saada (1998)

Azoz, an employee at the Opera House accompanies a violinist who has just arrived from tours abroad in her errands in the city. He eventually gets influenced by her and starts listening to classical music, and simultaneously gets bored with his life and wi ...

Chahine & Co (1992)

A "Cinéma, de notre temps" series episode directed by French film critic Jean-Louis Comolli on the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. ...

Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine (1991)

This concise masterpiece began as a commission by French TV for the news series Envoyé spécial. By filming Cairo with his unique sense of artistic digression, Chahine transformed this portrait of a city into the self-portrait of a filmmaker. ...

Alexandria Again and Forever (1989)

Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in "Alexandria, Why?" and "An Egyptian Story". Obsessed with Amr, the handsome a ...

Trio (1987)

Trio is a cinematic series of filmed portraits that shows, in a single large, fixed and silent shot of 3 minutes and 20 seconds, three people free to do what they want. ...

Arab Camera (1987)

Focusing on key Arab films produced in the last 20 years. Férid Boughedir traces the development of the film-makers' concern to produce more socially aware cinema. Themes include the issue of Palestinian homeland rights and the nature of Arab identity. Th ...

The Sixth Day (1986)

Egypt, 1947: in the midst of a cholera outbreak. A washerwoman tries to take care of her family, while at the same time resisting the advances of a charming suitor who's half her age. ...

An Egyptian Story (1982)

After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his ...

Cinématon XIV (1981)

Reel 14 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series. ...

Dawn of a New Day (1964)

The story of a 40-year-old married woman who has fallen into idleness and does not know how to approach the revolutionary events in her country. She finds a new meaning in life when she falls in love with an aspiring young student. "I shot FAGR YOM GUEDID ...

Ismail Yassine in the Air Force (1959)

Ismail El Ghandoor works as a stuntman and a small time actor in movies. He falls in love with a young belly dancer, Soheir who dreams of being the wife of a pilot. Ismail dresses up in his brother Hussein's clothes as a pilot in the force while his brothe ...

Cairo Station (1958)

Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually ...

Women Without Men (1953)

A brother disagrees with his sister which makes her move to live with her older sister in the countryside. She finds her sister living a harsh life and when the brother goes to visit them, he's surprised by the strict way imposed by the sister at home. ...