Tawfik Saleh

In a career in cinema of more than forty years, Tawfik Saleh has made just seven feature films. Al-Mutamarridun (The Rebels, 1967) was banned for politi­cal reasons, and his last two films, al-Makhdu’un (The Dupes, 1972) and al­Ayyam al-Tawila (The Long Days, 1980), made in Syria and Iraq, have never been shown in Egypt.

In Saleh’s last year at university, Tawfik al-Hakim’s play, Russassa fil-Qalb (A Bullet in the Heart) was presented at the French Friendship Club in Alexandria. Saleh was asked to direct it just three days before its presentation. The French Cultural Attaché was impressed by Saleh’s direction and sent him to study theater in Paris for a year.

Saleh returned to Egypt soon after the Free Officers’ revolution, having actually studied cinema rather than theater. His first film, Darb al-Mahabil (Fools’ Alley, 1954) was influenced by al-Suq al-Sawda’ (The Black Market, 1943), which Saleh had seen being filmed by director Kamel al-Tilmissani during his first year at university. The Black Market was set in a poor district of Cairo in the manner of director Kamal Selim’s al-Azima, but unlike al­Azima, this time there was no happy resolution at the hands of an enlight­ened pasha. Instead, the people confronted the greedy merchants and emerged victorious. With this setting in mind, Saleh collaborated with Naguib Mahfouz, in his first work for cinema, to create a film which was outside the ordinary in every respect. Although awarded the National Prize for Directing in recognition of its social commentary Fools’ Alley was badly received by both critics and public.

Saleh then made no films for seven years, until 1962, when he directed Sira’a al-Abtal (Conflict of Heroes), relating the cholera epidemic of the 1940s to the effects of British occupation. Over the years, he made three more films, The Rebels, based on a story by journalist Salah Hafiz; Yawmiyat Na’ib fil-Aryaf (Diary of a Country Prosecutor, 1968) from a novel by Tawfik al-Hakim; and al-Sayyid al-Bulti (Mr Bulti, 1969) from a story by Saleh Mursi.

He then moved to Syria for four years, where he made his masterpiece, The Dupes, written by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani about the tragedy of the Palestinian diaspora.

In 1973, Saleh moved to Iraq, directing his last film, The Long Days, about Saddam Husayn’s revolutionary youth. He now lives in Cairo.

Niazi Mustafa

Niazi Mustafa lived with Egyptian cinema for over half a century— from its birthing pains in the mid-thirties until 19 October 1986, when he was found murdered in his apartment, a crime that remains unsolved to this day.

The brighter side of Mustafa’s love story with cinema started when he persuaded his father to send him to study engineering in Germany. Once on German soil, he switched to the Cinema Institute in Munich.

After graduation, he trained at UFA Studios in Berlin (1932), then worked as assistant to German director Rupert Volmut. On his return to Egypt, he worked as assistant director to Yusef Wahbi on The Defense (1935).

His next move was to Misr Company for Acting & Cinema, where he made documentaries about Banque Misr companies. One of these, Suq al­-Milah (Market of the Handsome, 1936), was a song and dance sketch, fea­turing Badia Masabni and her troupe, among whom was Tahiya Karioka, who was to become Egypt’s greatest oriental dancer in the forties and fifties.

When Studio Misr was built, Mustafa was appointed chief editor and supervised the production of the early issues of the Egypt Newsreel. He

was also responsible for the editing of Widad (1936) and Lasheen (1939), both directed by the German Fritz Kramp.

His first feature film, Salama Fi Kheir (Salama in Prosperity 1937), showed his considerable talent and grasp of cine­matic language, and marked him out as an important figure in the industry. Meanwhile, he had married his assistant editor, Kouka, and he gave her the lead role in Masna’a al-Zawgat (The Wives’ Factory 1941). She also starred as the bedouin girl in Rabha (1943), Antar and Abla (1945), and Raweya (1946).

With the exception of two comedies, Salama Fi Kheir and Si Omar (Mr Omar, 1941), both featuring Naguib al­-Rihani, top comedian of the day, and both extremely successful, his early films had provocative social messages, begin­ning with al-Doktor (The Doctor, 1939), then Madraset al-Zawgat (School for Wives) and Wadi al-Nugum (Valley of the Stars) in 1943. When these three films had no success while cheap action films and musicals by lesser directors were attracting audiences in droves, Niazi opted for pure commercialism. He began with Rabha then Taqiyet al-Ikhfa’ (The Invisible Cap) where, with a budget of just LE 8,500, he employed special effects with a dexterity none could match. Even with a cast of then only second-tier stars (Muhammad Kahlawy, Tahiya Karioka, and Bishara Wakeem), the film was a box-office hit, earning some LE 250,000, a huge figure at the time.

Given impetus by this success, Niazi went on to become a director unrivaled for the size and variety of his output. His last film, al-Koradaty (The Monkey Trainer, 1986), had as its only star a monkey called Simsim. Niazi himself was murdered before he finished editing the film.

Togo Mizrahi

Togo Mizrahi, with a Ph.D in economics, and fluent in several languages, was an immensely productive figure in Egypt’s early cin­ema. In sixteen years he made thirty-two films, as director, author, scriptwriter, set designer, and sometimes actor. Between 1930 and 1946 he worked with every new aspect of film, making social dra­mas, musicals, and historical and heritage films, with a particular penchant for themes from A Thousand and One Nights.

Mizrahi’s first film, Kohayeen (Cocaine, 1930) was made at his private studio in Alexandria, where it was first shown under the title al-Haweya (The Abyss). It was not until 1938 that he moved to Cairo and rented Studio Wahbi as his headquarters and production base.

In his early years, following the custom prevalent at the time for a Jewish actor to adopt a screen name that was common to the three main religions of Egypt, Mizrahi changed his name to Ahmed Mishriki. But the new identity was not to last long. In 1934 he released the first of four films that featured an unambiguously Jewish character, Shalom. Al-Mandouban (The Two Representatives, 1934) was followed by Shalom al-Dragoman (Shalom the Dragoman, 1935), Shalom al-Riyadi (Shalom The Athlete, 1937) and al-Ezz Bandala (Prosperity is an Insult, 1937).

Mizrahi cast Ali al-Kassar, Egypt’s famous black actor, in the leading role of nine of his films, notably Alf Layla wa Layla (A Thousand and one Nights, 1941), Ali Baba wal-Arba’een Harami (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, 1942), and Nur al-Din wal-Bahara al-Thalatha (Nur al-Din and the Three Sailors, 1944). Singer Layla Murad was also brought into cinema by Mizrahi, and appeared in five of his films, ending with Layla fil-Zalam (Layla in the Darkness, 1944).

In 1946 came Sallama, one of the most important films Mizrahi made before leaving Egypt. Inspired by Arab history, with lyrics by Bairam al-Tonsy, music by Zakariya Ahmed, and a fast pace, the film was a major success and was Umm Kulthum’s best acting performance.

Soon after the release of Sallama, Mizrahi was accused of zionism and forced out of Egypt. He died in exile in Italy.