Shaheen cut his own image in Arab film world

Cairo: Yousuf Shaheen, who died on Sunday at a Cairo hospital, was without doubt Egypt's most-celebrated film director.

Awarded the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Life Achievements in 1997, Shaheen, a Christian, raised the anger of Islamists in Egypt with his film Al Muhajir (The Migrant), whose protagonist was seen by Islamists as portraying Prophet Joseph. Personifying prophets is strictly prohibited in Islam.

Late last year, Shaheen, who started his directorial career in 1950, angered the Egyptian authorities with his film Heya Fawda (It's Chaos) in which he exposes police abuses.

In the late 1950s, Shaheen introduced to the Egyptian cinema Omar Sharif in Sara Fi Al Wadi (The Blazing Sun) co-starring Egypt's acting icon Faten Hamama. A few years later, Sharif rose to Hollywood fame in the films Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement yesterday calling Shaheen one of cinema's "most celebrated servants" and "a fervent defender of freedom of expression." "Yousuf Shaheen sought throughout his life to denounce, through images, censure, fanaticism and fundamentalism," Sarkozy said.

Born in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria on January 25, 1926, Shaheen received schooling in France and studied theatre and cinematic art in the US.

He is hailed for giving the Egyptian cinema, the Arab world's oldest, some of its classics. The list includes Bab Al Hadid, a love tragedy set in Cairo's main rail station in 1958; The Triumphant Salah Al Deen, a 1963 epic film on the Middle Ages Arab warrior Salah Al Deen; and The Land, a film produced in 1968 based on a well-known Egyptian novel tackling feudalists' oppression of peasants.

Shaheen directed a total of 44 films, including three based on his life. In his last years, his films focused on promotion of tolerance and drawing the distinction between Islam and terrorism as in Al Akhar (The Other). He acted in four of his films, 17 of them were script-written by him.

In his Alexandria Trilogy - Alexandria, Why?, An Egyptian Story, and Alexandria Again and Forever - Shaheen turned autobiographical, recounting his childhood in his hometown, his love of Hollywood and his ambiguous feeling toward the United States, which he was drawn to but also saw as an overweening power.

The 1978 Alexandria, Why? has a scene of the Statue of Liberty giving a sneering laugh at immigrants arriving in America.

"I have a problem with America, you can call it a dilemma," Shaheen - who studied acting for two years at Pasadena Playhouse in California in the 1940s - once told an interviewer.

"I used to love it very much, I studied there, my first love was there ... I don't hate America as some think ... but it is difficult to sympathise with it."

"His departure is a great loss for the Arab movie industry," said Egyptian actress Youssra, who starred in several of Shaheen's films "I feel devastated," she added.

A mass service will be held today for Shaheen at a Roman Catholic church in Cairo before his body is taken to his hometown Alexandria where he will be buried.

- With additional inputs from agencies

List: Global adulation

Egyptian filmmaker Yousuf Shaheen, who died on Sunday at the age of 82, made his mark on Arab cinema of the 20th century. His major works were known and appreciated in the Western world.

Here is a filmography of his works.