Youssef Chahine
Biography
Youssef Chahine (born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1926) started studying in a friars' school and then turned to Victoria College until High School Certificate. After one year at the University of Alexandria, he moved to the U.S. and spent two years at the Pasadena Play House, taking courses on film and dramatic arts. After coming back to Egypt, cinematographer Alevise Orfanelli helped him into the film business. His film debut was Baba Amin (1950): one year later, with Son of the Nile (1951) he was first invited to the Cannes Film festival. In 1970, he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Festival. With Le moineau (1973), he directed the first Egypt-Algeria co-production. He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria... Why? (1979), the first installment in what proved to be an autobiographic trilogy, completed with Hadduta Masriya (1982)(An Egyptian Story (1982)) and Alexandria: Again and Forever (1989). In 1992, Jacques Lassalle proposed him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus' "Caligula," which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing The Emigrant (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream project, and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, he was again selected Hors Competition in Cannes with Destiny (1997).
Known For & Full Filmography24 Titles
Drama Series - 1974, 16 episodes • as Self
Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.
Drama Series - 2011, 16 episodes • as Self
A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.
Drama Series - 1987, 16 episodes • as Self
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.
Movie - 1987, 2h 15m • as Self
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. The film-makers also share a desire to develop a strong poetic tradition.
Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Self
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.
Movie - 1958, 2h 15m • as Qinawi
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 in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
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 constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.
Drama Series - 2024, 16 episodes • as self
The documentary series (Shaheen... Why?) takes a look at all the musical performances in Youssef Chaheen's films, from his first film to his last, through 6 parts that make up this series. يلقي المسلسل الوثائقي (شاهين.. ليه؟) نظرة على جميع العروض الغنائية في أفلام يوسف شاهين، من أول فيلم له وحتى آخر فيلم من خلال 6 أجزاء هي قوام هذا المسلسل
Movie - 1982, 2h 15m • as Old Yehia
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 latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef Chahine) the man he has become.
Movie - 1989, 2h 15m • as Yehia Eskendarany / Marc Antoine / Sostratus / Hephaestion
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 actor he discovered and cast as his alter-ego in parts one and two of The Alexandria Trilogy, Yehia pressures Amr to star in various film projects that change even as Yehia's perception of the young actor begins to change. He first casts Amr as Hamlet, which the actor deems too demanding for his talents, then as the lead in a musical biopic of demigod Alexander the Great, who founded the city of Alexandria in 332 B.C.
Movie - 2009, 2h 15m • as Self
This 2009 documentary by Mona Ghandour details the production of CAIRO STATION and includes interviews with director Youssef Chahine, screenwriter Abdel Hay Adib, and actors Hind Rostom and Farid Shawki.
Movie - 1959, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
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 brother is away on his honeymoon. When Hussein returns the truth is revealed, and each of them goes back to his real job. Will Soheir accept the real Ismail or will she continue to pursue her dream of marrying a pilot?
Movie - 1964, 2h 15m • as Hamada
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 in 1964. I count it among my best films and still stand by it completely. It is about the class whose assets were nationalized after the 1952 revolution. I explored the question of whether this class still had a place in Egyptian society.”
Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • as Rafah
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.
Movie - 2006, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
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.
Movie - 2002, 2h 15m • as Self
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, different as they were in class and social background, broke taboos and dismissed conventional wisdom to fulfill their overpowering passion for filmmaking. Women Who Loved Cinema takes us to the past and brings us, seamlessly, to the present day. Aziza ... Fatema ... Behidja ... Amina ... Assia … Mary... theirs is a story that will remain indelibly etched in the memory of Egyptian cinema.
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Self
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.
Movie - 1953, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
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.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as himself
A documentary film about Youssef Chahine and his cinematic journey
Movie - 2000, 2h 15m • as as Self
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.
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
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 wife.
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
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 real and the fiction and the autobiographical films of Youssef Chahine mingle. From Alexandria to Cairo, passing through Paris and Havana, an intimate and visceral narrative where mother and daughter cross space and time to trace destinies and question their emotions
Movie - 1992, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A “Cinéma, de notre temps” series episode directed by French film critic Jean-Louis Comolli on the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.
Movie - 1987, 2h 15m • as Self
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.