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Yousef Shahine's Death

The 82-year-old Egyptian International director Youssef Chahine, died today Sunday at the Armed Forces hospital in Cairo.

The late Chahine was transferred back to Cairo after the recent operation he underwent in France due to a brain haemorrhage.

Youssef Chahine was born in January 25th of the year 1926, he lived & was raised in Alexandria, and like most of the families residing in Alexandria at that period of time, there were five different languages spoken at Chahine’s home.

Despite being a member of the middle-class society, Chahine was tutored in private schools such as “Victoria College”, till he obtained his high school diploma (Thanaweya Amma).

After just one year in the faculty of Alexandria, Chahine moved to the U.S.A, and spent two years in the “Pasadena Playhouse” studying Film Making & Drama.

Youssef Chahine expressed his political ideas through his movies, he was against terrorism, and the Islamic extremists.
After his return to Egypt, the cinematographer “Alvisi Orfanelli” helped him getting into the film making industry.

Chahine’s first movie was “Baba Amin” (Papa Amin) in 1950. A year after “Baba Amin”, his movie “Ibn El-Nile” (Son of the Nile) participated in Cannes Film Festival.

In 1970, he won the Golden Prize at the Carthage Film Festival, he also won the Silver Bear Prize in Berlin for his movie “Eskendereya leih?” (Alexandria..why?) (1978), which was the first of a four movies series depicting his own biography.

The other three movies are “Hadouta Masreya” (An Egyptian Tale) (1982), “Eskendereya Kaman w Kaman” (Alexandria Again & Again) (1990), and “Eskendereya – New York” (Alexandria – New York) (2004).

In 1992, “Jacques LaSalle” offered Chahine the opportunity to perform a theatrical play of his choice at the “Comedie Française”. Chahine chose to present Albert Camus’ “Caligula” which was a great hit.

At that same year, he started writing the script of the movie “Al-Mouhager” (The Immigrant) (1994). His wish of creating this movie finally came to life in the year 1994. Chahine appeared as an actor in many of his movies such as “Bab El-Hadid” (El-Hadid Gate), and “Eskendereya Kaman w Kaman” (Alexandria Again & Again).

In 1997, after 46 years and 5 previous invitations, Chahine received the 50th annual lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival, for his movie “Al-Massir” (The Destiny) (1997). He received the “Insigne d'officier dans l'ordre national de la legion d'honneur” from France in 2006.

Youssef Chahine had had multiple cerebral hemorrhages in the night of June 15th 2008, and in June 16th, he went into a coma due to a cerebral bleeding, and he was then moved to ‘Al-Shorouq” hospital in Cairo.

The physicians of the 82-year-old director stated that he was in a deep coma and that his status was “critical”.

Khaled Youssef, the co-director of Chahine’s movie “Heya Fawda” (Is It Chaos?), demanded that Chahine should be transported to France or England by a private jet in order to receive medication there.

Khaled Youssef confirmed that according to doctors, Youssef Chahine’s case requires his transfer abroad. Later that day, Chahine was transported to Paris on a private German Medical-Aid jet where he was admitted in the American hospital in the French capital.

Youssef Chahine is known for opposing the censorship, the extremism, the Egyptian government and the Islamists. Chahine, had always considered himself to be a part of the Egyptian Liberal generation that still struggles against the conservative censorship, either from the country or from the society.