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Creativity has indeed lost one of its greatest champions. Youssef Chahine passed away on 27-07-08 in his home in Cairo.
The whole world mourned the death of this great filmmaker/actor. His style is most distinctive and his films varied from the social realist to the more Fellini-esque arty / metaphorical. Chahine always managed to move and provoke. Although some of his films are still bannned in the Arab world, they have been appreciated by non Arab audiences as important contributions to cinema.
The reaction to his death in Egypt has been that of genuine sadness at the loss of one of Egypt’s most important figures. The news coverage by the Arab media and the Egyptian “media” in particular has been disgusting and disappointing. As the news of his death broke, the Egyptian channel did not interrupt its ridicuilous vomit inducing makeover show. The audience had to endure the usual tedious irrelevence, that is the majority of the Egyptian channel’s content, to see if after the pathetic callers’ eyeshadow dilemnas are solved we would actually be given more information on his death or god forbid watch one of his films. Nothing happened however and stupidity ensued. This said a lot about the state of Egypt. Just as he had in all of his films. Chahine was one of my heroes, and i don’t have many.
January 25 1926 – July 27 2008
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