Freed after spending years in prison, an activist's homecoming turns into a dark affair as his disillusion clashes with his family's expectations. Demonstrating Chahine’s eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and profound portrait of personal and political disillusionment.

Chahine mixes documentary and fiction to create a portrait of Egypt’s bustling capital and a major center of the Arab world. The view of Cairo that emerges is a chaotic jumble of poverty, overcrowding, opulence and surging religious intolerance that results in a kaleidoscopic image recalling silent-era “city symphonies” and Fellini’s Roma.

Chahine mixes documentary and fiction to create a portrait of Egypt’s bustling capital and a major center of the Arab world. The view of Cairo that emerges is a chaotic jumble of poverty, overcrowding, opulence and surging religious intolerance that results in a kaleidoscopic image recalling silent-era “city symphonies” and Fellini’s Roma.

An enthralling look at the relationship between America and the Arab World from an Arab perspective. It tells the story of Yehia, a renowned Egyptian filmmaker whose life has been shaped by a pair of disrupted love affairs, one with an American woman named Ginger, the other with America itself.

Hemaidah is a Farmer who hates country life. He hates working in fields and taking care of the animals in his farm. Though unsatisfied with her, he marries Zebeidah, a woman in the same village.

Malak is a star singer who lives with her mother and her daughter, Loula, in her villa after her divorce. She falls in love with an opportunist called Lam'ey, so her daughter sets out to expose him with the help of her lover, a driver called Nasser, and the director, Ezz-ElDin who deeply loves Malak.

After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef Chahine) the man he has become.

This big-budget historical epic from acclaimed Egyptian director Youssef Chahine features a crazed turn by Patrice Chereau as Napoleon Bonaparte. The film, an Egyptian-French co-production, deals with Napoleon's occupation of Alexandria and its effect on a typical Egyptian family. Michel Piccoli leads the cast as a general in Napoleon's army who tentatively befriends a local poet.

A wealthy landlord floods and destroys a village on purpose to prevent the people living there from making a profit off their crops. What he doesn't know is that his own daughter, Amal, is in love with Ahmed, a young man from the village.

Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.

This complicated and surreal autobiographical film explores the personal life and fantasies that have shaped the motion pictures of Youssef Chahine. Taking a stand for democracy, Yehia (Chahine’s on-screen alter ego), joins a hunger protest which has rallied together the entire Egyptian film industry. As the strikers mount their demands, the director becomes overwhelmed by his infatuation for Amir, the young actor whose career he launched with the film Alexandria… Why? But this obsession is soon overshadowed by his interest in Nadia, the beautiful ingénue whom he decides to cast in his next feature.
The final chapter of Chahine’s Alexandria Trilogy.

Ragab, a poor sailor, returns home to Alexandria after three years of absence, during which he tried to save money to marry his one true love, Hamedah. But there's trouble on the harbor, and with an old friend.

Set in 1933, the mayor informs the peasants that the share of irrigation of their land will be split equally between them and feudal lord Mahmoud Bey. The peasants send Mohamed Effendi to submit a petition to the government. Mahmoud Bey then proposes a project that would require taking part of the peasants' lands.

One of his most controversial films, THE SPARROW was written by Chahine in collaboration with avant-gardist Lofti el-Kholi. Set during the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and the United Arab Republic this story of familial and national divisions has become one of Chahine's most popular films in festivals and retrospectives. A young policeman's adoptive father occupies a high post in the force, while his biological father is reputed to have been a left-wing activist. Raouf begins to search for those who might have known his real father, while his half-brother, stationed on the Sinai front, prepares for battle.
The Sparrow (El ‘Osfour) was banned in May 1973, then received in December of the same year the country’s highest cultural award. More importantly, however, is that starting from The Sparrow (El ‘Osfour), Chahine departed from the conventional mainstream cinema of his time and developed his own individual style, hence emerging as a pioneer in this respect; instead of using a linear plot, he displayed a new liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, and random-seeming collages of disparate material such as flashbacks, actual events, associations and documentary sequences. The overall result of these shifts was the inception of a new phase in his films which was dedicated to experimentation and innovation.

Egyptian director Youssef Chahine exposes the links between power and fanaticism and denounces intolerance in this bitter portrait of the Egyptian business world, where unconditional drive for money rules. Adam (Hani Salama), the son of a rich businessman and his American wife, meets Hanane (Hanane Turk), a journalist of modest means at the airport on his return from his studies in the US. She is part of a campaign against a wealthy elite, which has thrived on plundering its own people. They fall in love and get married. Corruption is everywhere in the country and American interests are taking over the lucrative tourist trade. Adam's rich parents and their friends in the government are at the heart of this corrupt system. Adam's mother, Margaret (Nabila Ebeid), nourishes a strange affection for her son. She is possessive to the point of violence and is ready to get rid of Hanane, whom she considers her rival. Adam turns against the global economy of which his parents are the perfect ...

Cairo 1947: the cholera epidemic in full swing. The beautiful Lavandiere Saddika lives with her paralyzed husband and her little son Hassan in a basement. She dreams of Prince Charming and assiduously frequented the cinemas. One day Hassan Okka be reduced to home, the seductive monkey trainer who easily discovers the woman in the sacrificed mother. But Hassan is achieved by the terrible disease Saddika and will do everything possible to save his little son. ——IMDB

Choubra, cosmopolitan neighborhood of Cairo. Hatem, maggoty police officer, handles this neighborhood with an iron hand. Every single citizen fears and hates him. Only Nour, a young woman he lusts after, dares stand up to him. But Nour is secretly in love with Cherif, brilliant and uncorrupted deputy public prosecutor. Green with envy, Hatem comes between. He wants Nour for himself. He whipsaws her and turns her life into a nightmare. The story of a frustrated love like Choubra experiences some since the mists of time.

The story is set in the 12th century in Arab-ruled Spanish province Andalusia, where famed philosopher Averroes is appointed grand judge by the caliph and his liberal court judgements are not liked by everyone. The caliph's political rivals, centered around the leader of a fanatical Islamic sect, force the caliph to send Averroes into exile, but his ideas keep on living thanks to his students.

Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.

2002 anthology film by 11 different directors