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A rigorous examination of the work of Egypt’s best-known filmmaker, new in paperback
This book presents a comprehensive study of the work of Youssef Chahine. Its methodological approach, and more precisely, the discussion of the theme of Arab national unity from a post-colonial point of view, emphasizes the ideological underpinnings of this Egyptian director’s themes as well as his esthetics. Malek Khouri focuses on the interaction between Chahine’s personal and political preoccupations, his eclectic cinematic style, and his devotion to connecting with a wide audience of filmgoers.
The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema is an important contribution to original scholarship in the fields of cultural studies, sociology of film, and history of cinema, and will be of great interest to scholars, students, and cinema lovers all over the world.
PRAISE FOR YOUSSEF CHAHINE:
"One of the few Egyptian filmmakers to gain an international audience in his lifetime. . . . his work stood apart for its artistic personality, empathy and willingness to tackle daring subject matter. His films were beloved in Egypt but also stoked controversy with their portrayals of sexuality, capitalism, gender, corruption and religious extremism."—Leila Latif, BFI/British Film Institute
"An extraordinary and often controversial career extending over six decades and including thirty-seven feature films. . . . Chahine's brilliance at blending convention and innovation in his portraits of Egyptian life may unsettle those with fixed ideas about the Arab world—or about the distinction between popular and art film—but they continue to fascinate and delight anyone with an open mind and a true love of cinema."—Harvard Film Archive
Malek Khouri is the author of Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada (1939–46) and co-editor of Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema. He is currently director of the film program in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at the American University in Cairo.
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. An Unfinished Project: Chahine and the Arab National Project
2. Popular Cinema and Conceptualizing Class and Social Change
3. Political Intervention and the Struggle for National Unity and Liberation
4. institutional Shifts and Political Divergences
5. The Prodigal Director
6. Identity and Difference
7. Resistance, Heterogeneity, and Historical Memory
8. Queer Transgression and Postcolonial Ambivalence
9. Religious Fundamentalism and the Power of HIstory
10. National Liberation in the Age of Globalization
11. Chahine as an Author and as an Organic Arab Intellectual
Notes
Bibliography
Index