At 71 years young and with 35 directorial credits to his name, Youssef Chahine ranks as one of the world's major filmmakers and receives widespread critical acclaim. He is a director whose best films find popular favour. Chahine's The Blazing Sun (1954) introduced the young Omar Sharif to the Egyptian audience, and his Cairo Station (Berlin Competition 1958) displayed his talents as an accomplished actor as well as director. His Alexandrian trilogy - Alexandria Why? (Silver Bear, Berlin 1979), Adieu Bonaparte (Cannes Competition 1984) and Alexandria Again and Again (Directors' Fortnight, Cannes 1990) - was remarkable for blending past and present in autobiographical statements of endearing affection for the city of his birth. Chahine was invited back to the Directors' Fortnight in 1991 to present the fiction-documentary Cairo As Told by Youssef Chahine, another insightful and warming chronicle of Egyptian urban life.
Not as well known in the West as in the Arab world are his historical spectacles: Saladin (1963), The Emigrant (1994) and now Al Massir (Destiny), selected for Competition at Cannes. The Emigrant, with its parallel to the story of Joseph in the Bible, unleashed a storm of protest, and the director was sued by an Islamic fundamentalist for daring to depict in forbidden images a prophet revered by Moslems. When the court ban was finally lifted a year later, The Emigrant went on to become his biggest success ever at the box-office.
Youssef Chahine's Al Massir, the story of the great 12th century Islamic philosopher Averroes (also known as Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Rushd), who lived in Moslem Spain, mirrors the director's own ordeal as a writer and artist during The Emigrant controversy. For Averroes' books were ordered to be burned, in Seville in 1194, following a protest by religious fundamentalists who adhered to a fundamentalist doctrine. The fact that translations of the philosopher's books were also burned in France attests to a similar fear among Western authorities that Averroes' Commentaries on Aristotelian thought were a serious challenge to Christian belief as well.
"Ideas have wings" is the position taken by Youssef Chahine in Al Massir. In light of the revival of fundamentalism today, he also appears to be posing a question to the Arabs and the West: "Where can true salvation be found - among thinkers or in institutions?" A French-Egyptian co-production shot in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and France, Al Massir chronicles the career of a medieval philosopher whose achievements in law and medicine (he was the first to describe the function of the retina), as well as philosophy, made him a favourite in the court of Yaqub Al Mansour, the powerful and enlightened Khalif in Andalusian Spain.
In Al Massir, Chahine also traces the spread of Aristotelian thought from Arabic texts of Syriac translations of the Greek philosopher. In much the same manner, Averroes' Commentaries on Aristotle were later handed down to Thomas Aquinas via Arab-to-Hebrew translations, which in turn did much to help drag the Western world out of the Dark Ages.
By researching the life of Averroes, Chahine has sketched a flesh-and-blood portrait of a revolutionary figure that doesn't get mired down in larger-than-life historical spectacle. Nour El Cherif plays Averroes, with Mahmoud Hemeida in the role of El Mansour, the Khalif who turns his back on a friend who is also the greatest name in Islamic philosophy. Ron Holloway
Prod co: Misr International Films, Ognon Pictures, France 2, Canal +
Prod: Gabriel Khoury, Humbert Balsam
Dir: Youssef Chahine
Scr: Youssef Chahine, Khaled Youssef
Ph: Mohsen Nasr
Art dir: Hamed Hamden
Cos: Nahed Nasrallah
Ed: Rashida Abdel-Salam
Mus: Kamal El Tawil, Yehia El Mougui
Cast: Nour El Cherif, Laila Eloui, Mahmoud Medeida
Running time: 140 mins
Int sales: Flach Pyramide
