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Director Youssef Chahine |
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THE EMIGRANT (AL-MOHAGER) |
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Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1926, into a Christian community and received a Fracophile education. Youssef Chahine studied briefly at university locally before moving to California where he studied film and theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1940, Youssef Chahine, then fourteen years old, wanted to dance like Gene Kelly. Guided by the extraordinary stage director Leonore Shanwise and the friendships of Victor Jory and Robert Preston at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse, he received his diploma in 1948 and returned to Egypt where he apprenticed with the Italian documentary filmmaker Gianni Vernuccio. He began his own directing career in 1950 at age 21 with his first feature film, BABA AMIN, directed in Cairo. But it wasn't until his controversial 1958 feature, CAIRO STATION, that Chahine's international reputation was established. In 1956, he just had to become as great a Hamlet as John Guilgud had been to his era.
Pursuant to a 1983 Fatwa issued by Cairo's El Azhar university outlawing representation of Prophets in any artistic work whatsoever, the Egyptian courts listened to the plaintif, "a God fearing Egyptian muslim citizen", and in December of 1994 ordered the security services to seize all copies of THE EMIGRANT and banned its exportation abroad.
Chahine was well aware of the Fatwa and for that reason changed the names of film characters from the original Biblical story. He submitted the script and thus received the official censor's approval. 750,000 Egyptians have already seen THE EMIGRANT when an obscure lawyer cried blasphemy.
The second ban in March 1995 mentioned here was launched by a Christian Copte lawyer accusing Chahine of not being true to the Biblical figure of Joseph.... Chahine continues to fight for independent cinema in the Arab world. He has created in Cairo a production company, Misr International, comprising of movie theatres and a studio.
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| DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT |
Among his films:
Offended the public in 1958; Today it is one of the major world classics. Depicting in detail the painful 1967 defeat was banned in May 1973, then received the country's highest cultural award in December 1973. Was considered too snooty. The first part of his autobiographical trilogy was too shockingly personal and too "pro-semetic", until it received the Silver Bear prize by the Berlin Festival Grand Jury . . . Second part of his autobiographical trilogy. The third part of his autobiography, a joyful layout of his innermost fantasies and a passionate tribute to his love of actors and of cinema. |
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CASTRO, MONDAY JULY 22 2:00PM - Ticket code
722A
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Castro, San Francisco |
Forty-six years, some 30 features and numerous awards later,
Chahine continues to provoke controversy and is still the "enfant terrible"
of cinema in the middle east. THE EMIGRANT was banned by Islamic religious
authorities in the director's native country.
Less than a year later, REUTER reported:
"Youssef Chahine's popular film al-Muhajer (The Emigrant) was banned
for the second time on August 31, 1995, on the grounds that it contravenes
Islamic rulings about depiction of prophets. The film was first banned
in November 1994 after a case was brought against it by an Islamist lawyer.
Chahine successfully appealed against the ban in March but a counter-appeal
was subsequently filed."