The following interview with scholar Richard Peña was recorded in 2024.

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1958 • Egypt
Starring Youssef Chahine, Farid Shawqi, Hind Rostom

Youssef Chahine established his international reputation with this masterpiece, which, though initially a commercial flop at home, would become one of the most influential and celebrated works in all ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1969 • Egypt
Starring Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Ezzat el-Alaili, Nagwa Ibrahim

Adapted from a classic novel by Abd al-Rahman Sharqawi, this howl of rage against social injustice is one of director Youssef Chahine’s most influential works, crowned by a career-best perform...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1954 • Egypt
Starring Omar Sharif, Faten Hamama, Zaki Rostom

Omar Sharif makes a striking film debut in this powerful working-class melodrama. He stars as the engineer son of a peasant who finds himself torn between love and land when he begins a romance with the d...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1994 • Egypt
Starring Youssra, Khaled el-Nabawy, Mahmoud Hemida

One of director Youssef Chahine’s most controversial works ignited a firestorm of criticism from both Islamic and Christian voices, who objected to its liberal reinterpretation of the biblical story of...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1954 • Egypt
Starring Omar Sharif, Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Lola Sedky

Director Youssef Chahine’s young discovery Omar Sharif blazes across the screen in this whirlwind swashbuckling adventure. He plays a young bedouin who sets out to overthrow a tyrannical ruler by fi...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1999 • Egypt, France
Starring Hany Salama, Hanan Turk, Nabila Ebeed

This wildly plotted drama marks the end of Youssef Chahine’s love affair with the United States, commenting on everything from capitalist greed to American cultural imperialism to terrorism within ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1986 • Egypt
Starring Dalida, Mohsen Mohieddin, Shwikar

This singularly arresting adaptation of a novel by renowned writer Andrée Chedid casts French pop star Dalida (in her final screen performance) as a married washerwoman trying to save the life of her stricken ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1963 • Egypt
Starring Ahmed Mazhar, Salah Zulfikar, Nadia Lutfi

Conceived as an ode to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, this titanic super spectacle, set in the twelfth-century Crusades, is Egyptian cinema’s rebuttal to the Hollywood Christian epic. Ahmed Maz...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1985 • Egypt
Starring Michel Piccoli, Mohsen Mohieddin, Mohamed Atef

Youssef Chahine’s rich and nuanced exploration of culture clash and connection centers...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1979 • Egypt
Starring Naglaa Fathi, Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Farid Shawqi

Having spent the larger part of the 1960s and ’70s examining the rise and fall of Egypt’s first republic, director Youssef Chahine turned inwards with this kaleidoscopic, semi-autobiographical evo...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1989 • Egypt
Starring Youssra, Hussein Fahmy, Youssef Chahine

The third installment in a series of four films Youssef Chahine made exploring his own life and times, ALEXANDRIA: AGAIN AND FOREVER stars the director himself as Yehia, a filmmaker whose planned HAMLET ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1982 • Egypt
Starring Nour el-Sherif, Youssra, Soheir el-Bably

A continuation of the self-exploration Youssef Chahine began with ALEXANDRIA . . . WHY?, this second autobiographical film unfolds as a surreal profusion of memories, fantasies, flashbacks, and hallucin...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1956 • Egypt
Starring Omar Sharif, Faten Hamama, Ahmed Ramzy

A hard-hitting commentary on class struggle and machismo set amid the dockyards of Alexandria in the immediate aftermath of Egypt’s 1952 revolution, this feverish social-realist melodrama stars the great ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1965 • Egypt
Starring Seif Abdel-Rahman, Sanaa Gamil, Youssef Chahine

Cited by director Youssef Chahine as one of his personal favorites among his films, this florid Sirkian melodrama that doubles as a subversive portrait of class conflict in the aftermath of the ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1997 • Egypt
Starring Nour el-Sherif, Laila Eloui, Khaled el-Nabawy

As a liberal humanist whose ideals were often at odds with the encroaching forces of religious fundamentalism, director Youssef Chahine found rich personal resonances in this urgent and engaging hi...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1950 • Egypt
Starring Faten Hamama, Hussein Riad, Farid Shawqi

Youssef Chahine’s debut feature—made at the age of just twenty-four, shortly after his time studying acting in Los Angeles—is a touching, bighearted blend of family drama and fantasy (with musical numbe...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1956 • Egypt
Starring Farid al-Atrash, Shadia, Ahmed Ramzy

Youssef Chahine’s love for classic Hollywood musicals shines through his own exuberant forays into the genre, including this inventive and offbeat blend of singing, dancing, and melodrama. Beloved singer-st...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1952 • Egypt
Starring Laila Mourad, Yehia Chahine, Emad Hamdy

A dark, roiling melodrama of greed, deception, and toxic love, Youssef Chahine’s stylish, noir-tinged third feature casts legendary chanteuse Laila Mourad as a singer whose no-good, gambling addict husba...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1957 • Egypt
Farid al-Atrash, Shadia, Abdel-Salam al-Nabulsy

One of the funniest and most beloved of all Egyptian film musicals, MY ONE AND ONLY LOVE shows off director Youssef Chahine’s lighter side as a supreme entertainer, reuniting popular singing stars Shadia ...

Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1976 • Egypt
Starring Shoukry Sarhan, Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Huda Sultan

One of Youssef Chahine’s most daring works (both thematically and formally), this shattering allegorical musical drama charts the shockwaves that ripple through a family when the youngest son—a f...