Director

Youssef Chahine

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

These indicators come from TMDB. They are relative signals, not review ratings.

Directed credits

Prolific

Very extensive directing filmography.

TMDB popularity

1.7

Low visibility

TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.

Directed movies: 35Directed series: 0All crew credits: 47

TMDB ID: 20023

IMDb ID: nm0149631

Known for: Directing

Born: January 25, 1926

Died: July 27, 2008

Age: 82

Place of birth: Alexandria, Egypt

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1950 - 2019

Years active: 70

Average TMDB rating: 6.94

Wikidata: Q312611

Also known as

يوسف شاهين • Юсеф Шахин • Youssef Chahine

Frequent jobs

Director (35)Writer (6)Producer (3)Screenplay (3)

TMDB TMDB IMDb IMDb W Wikidata

Biography

Youssef Chahine (born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1926) started studying in a friars' school and then turned to Victoria College until High School Certificate. After one year at the University of Alexandria, he moved to the U.S. and spent two years at the Pasadena Play House, taking courses on film and dramatic arts. After coming back to Egypt, cinematographer Alevise Orfanelli helped him into the film business. His film debut was Baba Amin (1950): one year later, with Son of the Nile (1951) he was first invited to the Cannes Film festival. In 1970, he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Festival. With Le moineau (1973), he directed the first Egypt-Algeria co-production. He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria... Why? (1979), the first installment in what proved to be an autobiographic trilogy, completed with Hadduta Masriya (1982)(An Egyptian Story (1982)) and Alexandria: Again and Forever (1989). In 1992, Jacques Lassalle proposed him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus' "Caligula," which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing The Emigrant (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream project, and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, he was again selected Hors Competition in Cannes with Destiny (1997).