Movies by Youssef Chahine

People and the Nile

People and the Nile

The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers, workers, Egyptians, and Soviets.

The Blazing Sun

The Blazing Sun

A wealthy landlord floods and destroys a village on purpose to prevent the people living there from making a profit off their crops. What he doesn't know is that his own daughter, Amal, is in love with Ahmed, a young man from the village.

The Sparrow

The Sparrow

Set shortly before and during the Six Day War in June of 1967, The Sparrow follows a young police officer stationed in a small village in Upper Egypt whose inhabitants suffer from the harassment of a corrupt businessman.

The Lady on the Train

The Lady on the Train

Fikria is a singer who's married to Farid ,the gambling addict. When she's traveling by train, she gets in an accident and a peasant treats her. After she returns home,her husband asks her to stay hidden to get the insurance money to pay for his gambling debts.

An Egyptian Story

An Egyptian Story

After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef...

Jamila, the Algerian

Jamila, the Algerian

Jamila, an Algerian girl who loves her homeland, joins the nationalist movement to liberate her country from French occupation. Based on the life of Djamila Bouhired, who was arrested and tortured by the French Algerian government, Chahine's first explicitly political film managed to galvanize wide solidarity with the Algerian resistance from across the Arab World, starting in Egypt.

The Choice

The Choice

When a free-spirited sailor is found murdered, his twin brother, a famous novelist, is the prime suspect. Investigators uncover a possible liaison between the dead sailor and the writer's wife, and also learn that Sayed's successful fictions owed much to the inspiration of his brother Mahmoud's adventurous life. Just as the evidence against the writer seems overwhelming, Mahmoud turns up alive. But why are the twins never seen together...?

Adieu Bonaparte

Adieu Bonaparte

This big-budget historical epic from acclaimed Egyptian director Youssef Chahine features a crazed turn by Patrice Chereau as Napoleon Bonaparte. The film, an Egyptian-French co-production, deals with Napoleon's occupation of Alexandria and its effect on a typical Egyptian family. Michel Piccoli leads the cast as a general in Napoleon's army who tentatively befriends a local poet.

You Are My Love

You Are My Love

Farid is forced to marry his cousin, Yasmina, after their uncle leaves them a big inheritance, provided that the two get married. They decide to get married on paper and separate after receiving the inheritance, but during the honeymoon in Aswan,they fall in love with each other.