On 5 November 1896, an excited audience in Alexandria watches breathlessly as images start to move on the screen set up by the Lumière brothers at Café Zavani in the Tousson Pasha Stock Exchange area. The screening takes place less than a year after the first commercial film screening at the Grand Café in Paris using the world’s first viable film camera. Developed and patented by French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, the Cinématographe is a three-in-one device that records, develops and projects motion pictures. On 28 November 1896, Henri Dello Strologo, the Italian Lumière agent in Egypt, organizes the first screening in Cairo at Hammam Schneider in the Halim Pasha Building. The immense success of the two shows encourages a group of foreign investors to establish cinema halls, and in 1897, the first cinema hall, Cinématographe Lumière, is inaugurated in Alexandria, followed by one in Cairo a year later. By 1908, there are five cinemas in Cairo, three in Alexandria and one each in Port Said, Assiut and Mansoura. They regularly screen short videos of events and scenes from daily life.

The Lumière brothers begin sending cameramen around the world to promote their invention and film scenes for screening at their cinemas. Their cinematographer Alexandre Promio arrives in Egypt on 10 March 1897 to tour the country and shoot scenes of daily life, and landmarks. His first film is taken in Alexandria and is titled the Place des Consuls. He moves on to other cities and shoots 35 films on this trip.

The Lumière brothers send a second mission to Egypt headed by the French-Algerian cinematographer Félix Mesguich to film more Egyptian scenes and sell camera equipment to local cinema halls. Mesguich’s arrival coincides with the opening of Cinémaphon Aziz and Dorès where the enterprising duo of Aziz Bandarli and Umberto Dorès had just screened the first film accompanied with sound using a Chronomegaphone Gaumont. In Cairo, a few weeks later, the Cinématographe Excelsior screens films accompanied with sound using the same device.

Aziz and Dorès, who are likely to have crossed paths with Mesguich on his travels, pick up the craft and soon become the pioneers of cinematography in Egypt. They establish the first Egyptian film studio in Alexandria’s Hadara district and produce the first local film under the title The Khedive’s Visit to the Mursi Abu al-Abbas Mosque in Alexandria, followed by other films of events and activities. Félix Mesguich’s films are screened to Egyptian audiences but Lumière no longer has a monopoly. Edison’s competing Kinetoscope enters the market and Pathé, Gaumont, Irpanora and others also start selling equipment. After a brief slump in popularity, cinema starts to pick up again among audiences in Egypt.

The beginning of censorship—In May, the Cairo governor’s office decrees that ‘excessively realistic’ films will be banned from cinema halls. What they actually mean is that scenes depicting poverty and any unseemly realities will not be allowed. Instructions are given to the local police stations to supervise all films screened at the various cafés, hotels, restaurants and film theatres, and report scenes depicting ‘indecent or inciteful material’. The Ministry of Interior subsequently issues a directive that film posters must also abide by rules of public morality.

An employee at the Egyptian General Survey Authority, an Italian by the name of Leopoldo Fiorello, develops a method to translate silent film intertitles (title cards) simultaneously to Arabic. Up until that point, film screenings had been accompanied by a mefahemati (narrator) who, for a reported fee of 15 piasters, would stand next to the screen and explain what was happening to the audience. Fiorello’s method involves writing translations on glass plates and projecting them through magic lanterns onto a separate smaller screen. The mefahemati’s role may have continued for illiterate audiences.

The first locally published specialized cinema magazine Cinégraphe-Journal is published by Roger Leoncavallo. It runs for only a few issues but is revived in 1919 by G. Géronimidis.

Umberto Dorès becomes the first director of the Società Italiana di Cinema di Alessandria (SITCIA) together with a group of Italian cinematographers. Financed by Banco di Roma, SITCIA builds several small studios with glass ceilings and walls to provide adequate lighting for indoor shooting. It produces three films. One of them, al-Zohour al-Katela (Mortal Flowers) is banned for a scene depicting an upsidedown Quran which—probably due to the technological limitations of the time—could not be edited out or fixed. Audiences disliked SITCIA’s films in all cases: the directing was poor, the stories unfamiliar, the intertitles in French and the actors foreign with one exception, Mohamed Karim, who although credited as the first Egyptian cinema actor would later make his name as an outstanding director.

SITCIA closes its doors in 1919 but cinematographer Alvise Orfanelli sets up his own studio and production company with equipment from SITCIA taken in lieu of unpaid wages. Learning from the failures of SITCIA’s unpopular films, Orfanelli brings in popular Egyptian theatre star Fawzi al-Gazayerli to star in director Leonardo Laricci’s Madame Loretta, an adaptation of one of the plays performed by al-Gazayerli’s troupe. Although it fares better than its predecessors, the audience still finds the silent film underwhelming compared to al-Gazayerli’s boisterous and lively theatrical performances.

Italian director Bonvelli shoots another short film, al-Khala al-Amrikaneyya (The American Aunt) starring theatre actor Ali al-Kassar who would later become a major film star. The film is based on the highly successful English stage farce Charley’s Aunt written by Brandon Thomas. There is little indication as to how the film fares among audiences, but the story would be revived decades later in Sukkar Hanem (Miss Sugar, 1960) starring Samia Gamal.

Al-Samir al-Mussawar, the first cinema magazine in Arabic, is published in Cairo by Leone Nahmyas and run by Omar Abdel Aziz Amin. It presents itself as a ‘literary, social and humorous’ magazine, but in fact, it largely focuses on cinema. In the issue dated 22 January 1922, the editors reply to a reader from the city of Beni- Suef telling him that they ‘very much like his idea of forming a local cine-club’. In an edition later in the same month, they mention that ‘a foreign film company is now producing a film at the Pyramids […] Shouldn’t one of the Egyptian impresarios be setting up a national company for cinematographic acting? […] Shouldn’t Talaat Harb Pasha be investing in this great project instead of building a theatre in Ezbekkeyya where only a handful of people will see the plays? Egypt has more than 50 film theatres, all foreign-owned, and all have a weekly income of no less than 60 Egyptian pounds.’ The magazine later founds a Cinematographic Acting Club and Company and begins to receive hundreds of applicants but folds in the same year and little is known of what came of their initiative. Their call to Talaat Harb, the chairman of Banque Misr and Egypt’s leading economist, however, does not go unheeded.

Al-Sowwar al-Motahareka, a fully specialized cinema magazine, is published by Mohamed Tewfiq and features 24 pages of cinema news mostly focused on foreign films. Egypt’s first film critic, al-Sayed Mohamed Hassan Gomaa, is among its contributors. Like al-Samir before it, al-Sowwar al-Motahareka calls for the establishment of a national film company and plays a role in promoting cine clubs countrywide.

Victor Rosito a lawyer who had been advocating the use of short instructional films to educate farmers, surprises everyone by producing the first full-length (80-minute) feature film in Egypt, In the Land of Tutankhamen, which he premieres at the Cinemagique Matussian. The film, which had promotional touristic aspirations, presents a dramatic love story taking place all over the country, with footage filmed at famous sites in Alexandria, Cairo, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor and elsewhere. It stars Aristide Hugue Andrea, John Marbert, Yolande Wiriss and Fawzi Mounib. The film is shot by Mohamed Bayoumi.

Mohamed Bayoumi purchases studio equipment and produces newsreels under his label Amun Film after failing to convince local impresarios to start a national cinema company. Three editions of Jaridat Amun (The Amun Journal) are released, of which only one documenting the return of Saad Zaghloul from exile survives. He later produces a short narrative film called al-Bashkatib (The Chief Clerk, 1924) starring Amin Attallah as a clerk who falls in love with a belly dancer, misappropriates a large sum of money to spend on her and ends up in jail. The 30-minute film is a big success and the storyline of the cabaret dancer corrupting an honest man subsequently dominates cinema.

Mohamed Bayoumi convinces Talaat Harb to start a cinema company after filming a documentary about the construction of the Banque Misr building. Bayoumi’s persistence, along with increasing calls in the press, finally prompt Harb to first establish Misr Film as a department under Banque Misr’s advertising company. Soon after, he founds the Misr Company for Acting and Cinema (MCAC) with a working capital of LE 15,000—for perspective, Banque Misr itself was established five years earlier with LE 80,000. MCAC initially focuses on producing newsreels and documentaries before branching out into feature films. The company would later establish Studio Misr. Along with Banque Misr, both cinema entities would be nationalized in 1960.

Wedad Orfi, a Turkish filmmaker, arrives in Egypt seeking to make a film about the life of Prophet Mohamed. The film was to be produced by the German company Marcos and Stiger and would star theatre actor Youssef Wahbi. Although the idea initially finds support from several Egyptian dignitaries, it is strongly attacked in the press and by religious authorities the minute word gets out and the project is eventually abandoned. Opposition to the idea of having prophets portrayed on film by actors is so fervent that there have been no further attempts to this day. Despite the uproar, Orfi remains in Egypt and moves on to other projects.

Two films compete to be the first ‘Egyptian’ full-length feature film: Laila, produced by Aziza Amir, and Qubla fi al-Sahara’ (A Kiss in the Desert), produced by the Lama brothers, Badr and Ibrahim. Both films reflect the fascination with the romantic desert love stories that dominate Hollywood after Rudolph Valentino’s The Sheik (1921) and Son of The Sheik (1926). Like The Sheik, both are also love stories between a dashing, gallant Bedouin man, and a visiting tourist from the Americas. Laila was Aziza Amir’s personal and nationalist project. Amir (who also liked to be called ‘Isis’) is often referred to as the ‘Founder of Egyptian Cinema’ and historians traditionally hold this year to be the year Egyptian cinema was born. After establishing her production company, Isis Film, Amir is approached by Wedad Orfi who had written a story titled Nida’ Allah (The Call of God) about a Bedouin girl called Laila. Their collaboration fails, but the film is eventually completed under the title Laila and screened at Cinema Metropole on 16 November 1927, a few weeks ahead of the Lama brothers’ film. Egypt’s writers, artists, journalists and public figures all attend the historic event and newspapers report that audiences roar with applause when they see Aziza Amir’s name in the opening credits. Talaat Harb, who is among the attending glitterati, congratulates Amir and is reported to have told her, ‘My lady, you have managed to accomplish what no man could accomplish

Qubla fi al-Sahara’ (A Kiss in the Desert) premieres on 25 January 1928 starring Badr Lama showing off his equestrian skills and athletic prowess, along with a token Egyptian (Ibrahim Zulfikar) who seems to appear in no more than two scenes but gives legitimacy to the film being touted by its makers as an ‘Egyptian’ achievement. In this story, Shafik (Badr’s character) is a valiant, strong young Bedouin in love with an American girl called Hilda. After a series of dramatic events, he saves the day, plants a kiss on her lips, and they live happily ever after. The film is not received well by audiences who find many of the scenes unrealistic, the costumes inaccurate, and Badr Lama’s acting poor. Nonetheless, the film is considered a historic landmark.

Assia Dagher’s first production, Ghadat al-Sahara’ (Desert Beauty)—yet another desert film—premieres on 1 May 1929. The film is produced by Assia’s Arab Film Company and the story of its production mirrors that of Laila two years before. Wedad Orfi, always on the lookout for a financier, had sold his script to Dagher, who agreed to produce the film that Orfi would both star in and direct. Again, Orfi’s difficult character and incessant demands cause the film to cost far more than anticipated. Despite the problems, the film marks Assia’s debut as one of Egypt’s biggest producers. It is also the first appearance of comedy superstar Abdel Salam al-Nabulsi and of actress/producer Mary Queeny, Dagher’s niece who is only a child at the time. The film receives mixed reviews but is given an award (a first for an Egyptian film) at the Industrial Fair in Damascus, where it earns the grand prize. | read more on the making of Ghadat Al-Sahara’ in We Did It All by Mary Queeny.

Zeinab is the first Egyptian film adapted from a literary work. Initially published under a pen name by writer Mohamed Hussein Heikal, the story is based on real events that took place in 1905. Filmmaker Mohamed Karim falls in love with the story and approaches Heikal who agrees to a film adaptation, signing a release at no cost. Karim then convinces his childhood friend, theatre impresario Youssef Wahbi, to produce the story. Wahbi founds his film production company, Ramsis Film, for the purpose. Karim travels to the village of Kafr Ghannam to visit the house and family of the original Zeinab before casting the actors, many of whom would become future stars. Chief among them are Bahiga Hafez, who also composes the musical score; Serag Mounir as Zeinab’s sweetheart Ibrahim; and Zaki Rustum as the wealthy older husband. Theatre matriarch Dawlat Abyad plays the role of the heroine’s mother. Although the film is considered too long and slow by some critics, it achieves considerable success and Mohamed Karim is praised for his skills as a director. In 1952, Karim produces a new film based on the same story, but this time starring Raqya Ibrahim.

The Egyptian government holds a competition for best script for a film about the dangers of drugs. The project, which seems to have unlimited resources at its disposal, never sees the light for reasons still unknown. However, in Alexandria, the young Togo Mizrahi presents the similarly themed Cocaine (also called al-Hawiyah/The Abyss) in his directorial debut. Mizrahi also plays the lead role in the film under the screen name Ahmed Mishriki. Little is known about the film’s details or reception.

Theatre veteran Naguib al-Rihani makes his cinematic debut in a film adaptation of Kesh Kesh Bey, the play and its namesake character that had made him a superstar on stage. Titled Saheb al-Sa‘ada Kesh Kesh Bey (His Excellency, Kesh Kesh Bey), the film is directed by Stephane Rosti, shot by Stelio Chiarini, and financed by al-Rihani himself. It features the antics of Kesh Kesh, the gullible but wealthy village mayor whose greatest weakness is pretty women. The comedy achieves as much success in cinema as it had on stage. Al-Rihani’s career continues to flourish and he becomes an iconic name in Egyptian cinema known for his social comedies and dry, subtle wit that stands in stark contrast to the farces that dominate the comedy films of the time. Al-Rihani would die in 1949 before completing his final film, the highly successful Ghazal al-Banat (The Flirtation of Girls, 1949).

The first locally manufactured recording device is made by Ladislas (Mohsen) Szabo, a Hungarian-Egyptian engineer. Szabo who had been working on adapting silent projectors to the new demands of the sound film, is soon able to record sound on films that had originally been silent. Many producers with a small budget are thus able to add sound to their films locally. The first sound on film heard by Egyptian audiences is the voice of Youssef Wahbi in a trailer promoting his upcoming film, a talkie titled Awlad al-Zawat (The Elites).

Two films compete for the distinction of being the first talkie in Egyptian cinemas: Awlad al-Zawat (The Elites) and Onshoodat al-Fuad (A Song from the Heart). On 14 March 1932, Awlad al-Zawat gains the honour, followed by Onshoodat al-Fuad, which is screened barely a month later, on 14 April. Awlad al-Zawat’s story is credited to Youssef Wahbi with script and direction by Mohamed Karim and cinematography by Gaston Mardi (from MCAC). It stars Wahbi along with Amina Rizq, Serag Mounir and Collete d’Arville. The silent scenes are shot on the Studio Ramsis Cairo set while those with sound (almost half the film) are shot in Paris. The story is of two couples, Hamdy and Zeinab, and Zeinab’s cousin Amin and his French wife Julia. Hamdy deserts his wife Zeinab and runs off to France with Julia with whom he’d been having an affair. In France, Julia takes other lovers, driving Hamdy to his destruction. The film is a remarkable success and stays in theatres for an unprecedented four weeks. There is, however, a backlash from the foreign communities in Egypt against the blatant stereotyping of their women. Onshoodat al-Fuad is produced by Nahhas Sphinx Films in cooperation with the Behna brothers and shot in Gaumont Studios in Paris. It brings together some of the most celebrated names in the Egyptian creative industry including Nadra, a famous singer; Zakaria Ahmed, notable singer and composer; and George Abyad and his wife Dawlat, both theatre icons. The director is Mario Volpi, and the songs featured in the film are written by poet Khalil Mutran. The story is of the wealthy Amin Pasha who brings his mistress, the French dancer Mireille to Upper Egypt, and Hosni, the husband of Nadra’s character who starts an affair with her. Nadra dies giving birth to a girl while Hosni’s affair leaves him a broken man. The girl grows up in the house of Amin Pasha, and years later, marries his son, giving viewers a happy ending. Although it is one of the first talkies, the film is not a great success. The story is cumbersome and the songs too long and poorly integrated into the dialogue. Also, this time, even the Egyptians speak up in the press against the stereotyping of foreign women.

Fatma Rushdi, Egypt’s most celebrated actress at the time, becomes the country’s first female director in al-Zawag (Marriage), which she writes, directs, produces, and stars in with Mahmoud al- Meligy in his cinematic debut. The story is a standard one: Fatma’s character, Salma, loves her impoverished cousin Ahmed but her father forces her to marry the rich Ezzat. Years later, her daughter falls ill, and Ahmed, now a doctor, tries to save her as the rich husband enjoys himself at nightclubs. Salma eventually runs away from her marital home but commits suicide when forced to return by court order. Although Rushdi is lauded for her directorial debut, and for having tackled the ‘House of Obedience’ law (under which a wife can be legally forced to live with her husband against her will), audiences find the story unoriginal, and the film flops. Rushdi is rumoured to have burned all copies of the film later in her life.

Egypt’s ‘Singer to the Kings’ Mohamed Abdel Wahab makes his film debut in al-Wardah al-Bayda (The White Flower). The story is a collaborative effort by Mohamed Karim and Suleiman Naguib and the film is directed by Karim, the only director Abdel Wahab would ever agree to work with. In this film, Raga’a (played by Samira Kholousy) lives with her wealthy father and evil stepmother. Abdel Wahab’s character, Galal, is a poor young man in her father’s employment, and yet again, we see a story of unrealized love. Although the story is not new, the songs are integrated seamlessly into the scenes, establishing Karim as the pioneer of the musical film in Egypt. It is a resounding success and breaks all records by playing for six consecutive weeks. It is also the first film to be distributed on a wide scale outside Egypt.