Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the city-state Cairo Governorate, and is the country's largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.9 million, is the 12th-largest in the world by population. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt, as the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, the city first developed as Fustat, a settlement founded after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 next to an existing ancient Roman fortress, Babylon. Under the Fatimid dynasty, Cairo was founded nearby in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site status in 1979. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC.
Soad Hosny was an Egyptian actress born in Cairo. She was known as the "Cinderella of Egyptian cinema" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She ascended to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991 with nine films in the greatest 100 films in the history of Egyptian cinema. A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s. Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film, The Shepherd and the Women, directed by her ex-husband, Ali Badrakhan.
The culture of Egypt has thousands of years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations in the world. For millennia, Egypt developed strikingly unique, complex and stable cultures that influenced other cultures of Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The Arab world, formally the Arab homeland, also known as the Arab nation, the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western Asia and Northern Africa. While the majority of people in Arab world are ethnically Arab, there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Somalis and Nubians, among other groups. Arabic is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world.
Middle Eastern Cinema collectively refers to the film industries of Western Asia and part of North Africa. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of Asia, or in the case of Egypt, Africa.
The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also referred to as Hollywood on the Nile. Since 1976, the capital has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations. There are an additional 12 festivals. Of the more than 4,000 short and feature-length films made in MENA region since 1908, more than three-quarters were Egyptian films. Egyptian films are typically spoken in the Egyptian Arabic dialect.
Arab cinema or Arabic cinema refers to the film industry of the Arab world which depends for most of its production on the Egyptian cinema.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Cairo, Egypt.
Ashraf Fahmy was an Egyptian film director, active in the Egyptian film industry since the late 1960s. He was credited with launching his career and directing his first feature film with the lead role played by the leading film star Salah Zulfikar, making a huge commercial success. Fahmy is a daring director frequently seen in film festivals worldwide, in addition he wrote the script of three films including, which is considered his most memorable movie.
Niazi Mostafa was an Egyptian film director.
Shivakiar Ibrahim was an Egyptian princess and a member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. She was the first wife of King Fuad.
Aziza Amir was an Egyptian actress, producer, and screenwriter. She has legendary status in Egyptian film. She was the first wife of Mahmoud Zulfikar.
Viola Shafik is an Egyptian-German film theorist, curator, and filmmaker.
Nadia Elgendi is an Egyptian actress and producer. She is often known in Egypt as "Negmet El gamaheer" because of the high commercial success of her movies in the 1990s. Through her still on-going 6-decades career, she has appeared in 61 movies and 7 TV shows. She is most recognized for her femme fatale roles and spy movies related to Egyptian-Israeli conflict and patriotic issues after 1952 revolution, such as El Gasousa Hekmat Fahmy (1994), Mohemma Fi Tel Aviv (1992). Also, she is known for various crime movies, ranging from vulgar drug dealer in Egyptian suburbs to a professional thief.
Nadia Hamza is an Egyptian film director, producer and screenwriter. Before directing, Hamza worked as a scriptwriter, assistant and producer. She became a successful director and screenwriter known for making films with female leads discussing women aspirations and experiences. In 1994 she founded her own production company, Seven Stars Studio and began collaborating with other Egyptian filmmakers. Nadia believes that women director's differ from their male counterpart in regards to the subject of a film and how they handle and use the camera. She was known for portraying women and challenges societal views on working women. She has her female character's be portrayed as winners and concentrates on women's issues, especially working women.
Sayed Darwish is a 1966 biography Egyptian movie about famous and prolific Egyptian singer and composer Sayed Darwish, directed by Ahmed Badrakhan and starring Karam Motawie and Hind Rostom.
Intisar al-Shabab is an Egyptian film released in 1941. It was the first film featuring sibling actor-singers Asmahan and her brother Farid al-Atrash, the latter of whom composed all the songs in the film. Al-Atrash presented the operetta-within-a-film ليلة في الأندلس, the first of several lyrical theatre pieces in Egyptian cinema, including text from poet Ahmed Rami quoted from The Barber of Seville. The operetta includes two acts with four scenes and features music in the maqam of Ajam.
Karnak is a 1975 Egyptian political film based on a novel written by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz with the same name, and directed by Ali Badrakhan and starring Soad Hosny. The film features Salah Zulfikar in a special appearance as Shoukry the rebellious member of parliament. The film includes an ensemble cast that includes Nour El-Sherif, Kamal El-Shennawi, Farid Shawqi, Taheyya Kariokka, Emad Hamdy and Shwikar. Karnak is listed in the Top 100 films in Egyptian cinema of the 20th century.
Road to Eilat is a 1994 Egyptian war film directed by Inaam Mohammed Ali and features Salah Zulfikar in a special appearance as Admiral Fouad Abu Zikry, the commander of Egyptian Navy. The film stars Ezzat El Alaili and Nabil Al-Halfawi. The film is Salah Zulfikar’s final film role.
