Salah Abu Seif ( ar, صلاح أبو سيف, ) (May 10, 1915 – June 23, 1996) was one of the most famous Egyptian
film directors
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pro ...
, and is considered to be the godfather of
Neorealist cinema in
Egyptian cinema
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 Intern ...
. Many of the 41 films he directed are considered Egyptian classics with 11 films in the
Top 100 Egyptian films
Top 100 Egyptian films aliases: CIFF 100 Egyptian films or Greatest 100 Egyptian films in 20th century or Top 100 films in the centenary of Egyptian cinema (Egyptian Arabic: قائمة أفضل مئة فيلم في مئوية السينما الم ...
list. His film ''
The Beginning and the End'' (1960) was the first adaptation of a novel by
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winner
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...
. In 1977 he was a member of the jury at the
10th Moscow International Film Festival
The 10th Moscow International Film Festival was held 7-21 July 1977. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Hungarian film ''The Fifth Seal'' directed by Zoltán Fábri, the Spanish film '' El puente'' directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and the Sovi ...
.
Early life
Abu-Seif was born in 1915, in Cairo's ancient quarter of Boolaq, to landowning parents from Upper Egypt. He was 12 years old when he saw the first full- length feature film made by an Egyptian, in 1927, at a local movie-house - earlier films were imports accompanied by Egyptian narrations, or made by Europeans living in Egypt. As the son of a conservative family, Abu-Seif graduated from the Cairo College of Commerce and Economics in 1932, while at the same time working as a freelance reporter following movie stars. But it was at his day job as a clerk in a factory that he met the Egyptian film-maker Niazy Mustapha, who was on a shoot there. Mustapha made him a film editor.
In 1939, Abu-Seif won a scholarship to study film in Paris. Within five years of his return in 1942, he had established himself as one of the most avant-garde second generation film-makers in the country. He pioneered shooting on location - though he also used reconstructions - in places none of his predecessors had dared to visit, like ghurza (the equivalent of old Chinese opium dens), brothels and impoverished areas whose existence had never been officially acknowledged.
Filmography
See also
*
Kamal El Sheikh
Kamal El Sheikh ( ar, كمال الشيخ; 2 February 1919 – 2 January 2004) was an Egyptian film director. He directed 28 films between 1952 and 1987, with eight of them in the Top 100 Egyptian films list.
Selected filmography
* '' Mala ...
.
*
Hassan Al-Imam
Hassan al-Imam ( ar, حسن الإمام; March 6, 1919 in Mansoura, Egypt – January 29, 1988) was a prominent Egyptian film director. He was nicknamed the Box-office King, made three films listed in the Top 100 Egyptian films list.
Early life ...
.
*
Mahmoud Zulfikar
Mahmoud Qasdy Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar (18 February 1914 – 22 May 1970) was an Egyptians, Egyptian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He started his career as an architect, before becoming an actor in 1939. He was a major figur ...
.
*
CIFF Top 100 Egyptian films
References
External links
* .
{{DEFAULTSORT:AbouSeif, Salah
Egyptian film directors
1915 births
1996 deaths