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ISKANDERIYA... LEH? (1978) | [aka... اسكندريه ليه - Alexandria... Why? - Alexandrie...Pourquoi? (France)] |
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Written by:
Mohsen Zayed
Original Music by:
Algerian TV |
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| STORY | |
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The first and best chapter in the Alexandria Trilogy. Youssef Chahine's autobiography, one of the best movies ever made, a classic, an all time cast like: Miligi, ahmed zaki, mohsen mohidine, nagla fathi, abdelwares assar, mohsena tawfeek, farid shawki, yehia chahine, youssef wahby, etc. The film setting is during WWII, in the beautiful city of Alexandria, Egypt. Showing us different forms of love, love between a Muslim guy and a Jewish girl, love between 2 guys, love for patriots to their country and love of a teenager to the cinematic life. An amazing film. Alexandria, Why? was a (widely banned) revelation in Arab cinema for its use of first-person narrative and for testing boundaries of cultural identity. In 1942, as Rommel's army nears Alexandria, some cheer the victors, Jews prepare to flee, and a vengeful aristocrat buys British soldiers to seduce and kill them--until he falls in love with one young captive. A young student (Chahine's avatar) adores Shakespeare and Hollywood, dreaming of studying filmmaking in the USA, but as he discovers the lies of European occupation and Americanization, and experiences a sexual awakening, he profoundly reevaluates his identity and allegiances. |
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| CAST & CHARACTERS | |
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Mohsen Mohiddine |
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| TRIVIA | |
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. Chahine won the silver bear for best film at the 1979 Berlin Film Festival. ."A splendidly fluent picture of a vanished world…" -Roy Armes, |
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Egypt/Algeria - 133 min - 35MM - Color - Dolby Digital |
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