THE HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN CINEMA

ThefirstcommercialmovieintheworldwasasilentmovieforTheLumirebrothers.Itwasscreened
in December 1895 in the Indian saloon, Grand Caf, Caposeen st. Paris. The films of the Lumire
BrotherswerescreenedinEgypt soonaftertheirdebutinEuropein1896at theprestigiouscafsof
Cairo,AlexandriaandPortSaid.

ThisishowtheEgyptianshortdocumentaryindustryhasstarted

Feature films, on the other hand, havent existed till the year 1917 when an Italian Egyptian
Productioncompanyproducedtwofeaturefilms:TheHonoroftheBedouin(Charafelbadaw)andThe
DeadlyFlowers(elAzhrelmomtah).However,Historianscannotagreeonsettingacertaindatefor
thebeginningoftheEgyptiancinema.

SomesaythattherealstartwasthescreeningofthefirstEgyptianmoviebackin1896.Othersmark
thebeginningoftheEgyptianCinemawiththeshootingofthefirstshortdocumentarysilentmoviein
the20thofJune1907aboutthevisitofKhediveAbbasHilmiIItotheInstituteofMursiAbulAbbasin
Alexandria.

In 1927, two of the most famous movies in the early history of the Egyptian cinema were produced
andscreened.ThefirstfilmwascalledAKissintheDesertandtheotherwascalledLayla,starredby
thefirstactressinthehistoryofEgyptianCinematography,AzizaEmir.

Egypts first film with sound was The nobles sons starring legendary actors Youssef Wahba and
AminaRezkandproducedin1932.Thesameyearwitnessedthefirstmusicalfilmstarringforthefirst
time afemale singer,Nadera. ShortlyafterThewhiteflower wasreleased starring,alsofor thefirst
time,theEgyptiansinger:MohammedAbdelWahab.

TheestablishmentofStudioMisrin1935wasconsideredthebiggestjumpinthehistoryofCinemain
Egypt. Unlike other studios, Studio Misr remained the cornerstone of the cinematic production in
Egypt.Also, the casinos andtheatersof EmadElDinStreetknownasthe Streetofartat thattime
witnesseda great progress till the beginning oftheIIWorld War.Dawood,starring theveryfamous
singerOmKolthomandproducedbyStudioMisr,wasthefirstEgyptianmoviescreenedoutsideEgypt.

After theSecond World War, the numberoffilmsproducedin Egypt doubledfrom16 moviesin

1944to67in1946.ThatperiodwitnessedtheriseoffamousFilmmakerslike:AhmedBadrakhan,
HenryBarakat, HassanEl Emam,IbrahimEmara,Ahmed Kamel Morsi,HelmiRafla,KamalElSheikh,
Hassan El Seefy, Salah Abo Seef, KamelElTelmesani,EzzElDin ZoEl Fakar andAnwarwagdy(who
This project is co-funded by the European Union

The project is implemented

by Ricerca e Cooperazione in Egypt and SEMAT

presenteda seriesof musicals).Thesame goldenperiodhasalsointroduced theriseof the popular

cinema stars like: Layla Morad, Shadia, Fatem Hamama, Magda El Sabahy, Mariam Fakhr El Din,
Taheya Karioka, Nadia Lotfi, Hind Rostom, Omar El Shereef, Yehya Shaheen, Estifan Rosti, Farid
Shawki,AhmedRamzy,SalahzoElFakar,andAnwarWagdy.BabaAtriswasthefirstEgyptiancolored
movie.Thefilmwasproducedin1950,starringNaimaAkefandKamalElShenawi.

CinemaProductionwasnationalizedinthe6oswhichledto:thereductionofproductionlevelfrom
60to40filmsayear,aswellastheCinemaTheatreswerereducedfrom354in1945to255in1966.

TheEgyptianmoviesinthe60scanbedividedintothreesections:

1. Moviesthattackletheissuesofpoverty,underlinethevalueofworkandpraisethecommunist
societysuchasThethiefandthedogs.
2. Moviesthatcondemntheopportunists'figuresandthesocialdiseaseslikebribery,corruption,
androbberycrimessuchasMiramarmovie.
3. Moviesthatempathisethecaseofpeopleparticipationinpolitics,criticizingthenegativityand
discussingtheissuesofdemocracyandresistancesuchasTheraindried.

Inthemidof1971,apublicentitywasestablishedincludingCinema,Theater,andMusic.Theroleof
theStatewassubsidedandendedupproducingfeaturemovies.Onlytwocompaniesremainedunder
thecontrolofthestate:onefortheStudiosandotherforDistributionandCinemas.Butthemidrateof
productionremained40films ayeartill1974 and thengothighertoreach 50.Asfor the numberof
cinemas,itwentdownto190in1977.

With the beginning of the 80s, a group of new and young directors succeeded in breaking the
production main stream tradition, building a serious kind of cinema which was called the stream of
new realism or the 80th generation cinema. Among these Directors: Atef El Tayeb, Raafat El Mihy,
khairyBeshara,MohamedKhanandothers.
Suddenlytherateofthescreenedmoviesroseto63inthemid80sandespeciallyin1985,which
was known as the wave of contracting films. These kinds of films were mainly low production films
with bad artistic standards aiming to fill the videotapes and sell it to the Gulf Countries. In the year
1986thecontractingfilmslinereacheditspeakbyproducing95movies.

By the end of 80s and beginning of 90s and specifically after the Gulf War, it was obvious that the
contractingfilmsproductionwentdownasanoutcomeofthemarketlowdemandofGulfcountries
and so another group of directors tried to change, among them Radwan El Kashef, Osama Fawzi and
SaidHamed.

Since then,morethan4.000filmshavebeenproducedinEgypt,threequartersofthe total Arab

production.EgyptisthemostproductivecountryintheMiddleEastinthefieldoffilmproduction,and
theonewiththemostdevelopedmediasystem.

This project is co-funded by the European Union

The project is implemented

by Ricerca e Cooperazione in Egypt and SEMAT