•The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing Egyptian Arabic-language film industry based in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

•Since 1976, Cairo has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations.

•Of the more than 4,000 short and feature-length films made in Arabic-speaking countries since 1908, more than three-quarters were Egyptian.

Cinema of Egypt

While a limited number of silent films were made in Egypt from 1896 (with 1927's Layla notable as the first full-length feature), Cairo's film industry became a regional force with the coming of sound.

Between 1930 and 1936, various small studios produced at least 44 feature films.

History:

Beginnings

In 1917, the director Mohamed Karim established a production company in Alexandria.

The company produced two films: Dead Flowers and Honor the Bedouin, which were shown in the city of Alexandria in early 1918.

The 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s are generally considered the golden age of Egyptian cinema.

As in the West, films responded to the popular imagination, with most falling into predictable genres and many actors making careers out of playing strongly typed parts.

In 1940, the entrepreneur and translator Anis Ebeid established "Anis Ebeid Films", as the first subtitling company in Egypt and the Middle East, bringing hundreds of American and World movies to Egypt. Later he entered the movie distribution business too.

The Golden Age

Most of the 44 Egyptian films featuring in the best 100 Arab films of all time were produced during that period.

Notable titles included "The Night of Counting the years", "Cairo Station" and "The postman“

By the 1970s, Egyptian films struck a balance between politics and entertainment. Films such as 1972's Khalli Balak min Zouzou (Watch out for Zouzou), starring "the Cinderella of Arab cinema", Suad Husni, sought to balance politics and audience appeal.

Zouzou integrated music, dance, and contemporary

fashions into a story that balanced campus ferment with family melodrama.

Transitional period

The late 1970s and 1980s saw the Egyptian film industry in decline, with the rise of what came to be called "contractor movies".

Actor Khaled El Sawy has described these as films "where there is no story, no acting and no production quality of any kind... basic formula movies that aimed at making a quick buck."

Throughout most of 1980, the West German filmmaker Teod Richter worked in Cairo filming what would become his last film, the 248 minute silent feature "Memory Through Tales Told“.

Since the 1990s, Egypt's cinema has gone in separate directions.

Popular films, often broad comedies such as What A Lie!, and the extremely profitable works of comedian Mohamed Saad, battle to hold audiences either drawn to Western films or, increasingly, wary of the perceived immorality of film.

A few productions, such as 2003's Sahar el Layali (Sleepless Nights), intertwined stories of four bourgeois couples and 2006's Imarat Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building) bridge this divide through their combination of high artistic quality and popular appeal.

In 2006, the film Awkat Faragh (Free Times) was released. A social commentary on the decline of Egyptian youth, the film was produced on a low-budget and with the attendant low production values. The film, however, became a success.

Present:

The year 2007, however, saw a considerable spike in the number of Egyptian movies made.

In 1997, the number of Egyptian feature-length films created was 16.

10 years later, that number had risen to 40. Box office records have also risen significantly, as Egyptian movies earned around $50 million while American movies, by comparison, earned $10 million.

The quality of movies has also improved both in terms of direction and plot.

BEST FILMS

The Night of Counting the Years Al-Mummia(1969)

Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam

Produced by Roberto Rossellini

Written by Shadi Abdel Salam

•It is a 1969 Egyptian film directed by Shadi Abdel Salam.

•It was Salam's first feature film.

•The film was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 43rd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

•It is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artefacts on the illicit antiquities black market.

Al Haram The Sin(1965)

Directed by Henry Barakat

Written by Youssef IdrissSaad al-Din Wahbah

It is a classical 1965 Egyptian drama film directed by Henry Barakat.

The film stars Faten Hamama, Zaki Rostom, and Abdallah Gheith and is based on a novel by the same title by Yūsuf Idrīs.

The film was nominated for the Prix International award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.

It was also chosen as one of the best Egyptian film productions in the Egyptian Cinema centennial.

A survey by Al-Fonoon magazine in 1984 chose it as one of the best ten films in the history of Egyptian cinema.

PlotAzizah, a poor peasant, portrays worker oppression in this

somber social drama.

She gets savagely raped by a guard when she goes into the fields to gather potatoes.

She does not reveal what had happened to her husband who is suffering from an illness.

She conceals the pregnancy and throttles the baby after it is born.

She also dies soon thereafter.

The migrant workers rally around her memory as she becomes a martyr to the cause of the struggling peasants.

Al-irhab wal kababTerrorism and Kebab(1992)

Directed by Sherif Arafa

Written by Wahid Hamed

It is a popular 1992 Egyptian comedy film starring Adel Emam.

•The film has been described as a "classic Egyptian comedy about government corruption, bumbling and the good hearted nature of the sha'ab (people) of Egypt.“

•The film was a great success, and has even has been cited as the most popular Egyptian film of all time.

•A 2007 poll of Egyptian critics taken by Al-Ahram newspaper listed the film as No. 15 on the 15 best Egyptian films of all time.

Doaa al-Karawan The Nightingale's Prayer (1959)

Directed by Henry Barakat

Produced by Barakat Film

Written byTaha Hussein (novel)Youssef GoharHenry Barakat

It is a classical 1959 Egyptian drama film directed by Henry Barakat and based on a novel by the prominent writer Taha Hussein.

In 1996, during the Egyptian Cinema centennial, this film was selected one of the best 150 Egyptian film productions.

It received an award of recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards.

It was also entered into the 10th Berlin International Film Festival.