Biography
Youssef Chahine was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter and actor. Born in Alexandria in 1926, he studied at Victoria College and briefly at the University of Alexandria before training in film and drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He made his directorial debut with Baba Amin (1950) and gained early international attention with Son of the Nile (1951) at Cannes.
Chahine directed and played the central role of Qinawi in Cairo Station (1958). He is known for films including The Blazing Sun (1954), The Land (1970), Destiny (1997) and the autobiographical Alexandria trilogy beginning with Alexandria... Why? (1979). He received a Silver Bear at Berlin for the latter and a lifetime achievement award at Cannes in 1997. Chahine died in Cairo in 2008.
