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Alexandria... Why? (Egyptian Arabic: إسكندرية ليه, translit. Iskanderija... lih?) is a 1979 Egyptian drama film directed by Youssef Chahine. It was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize. [1]
The first of Chahine's four film semi-autobiography, entitled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Alexandria, Why? focuses on a precocious adolescent whose dreams and colorful attempts to become an actor unfold against the vivid backdrop of Alexandria during World War II.
In the 1940s, an Egyptian teen escapes his country's tense political climate through his love of American film.
- Drama
Alexandria... Why? is a story of limited opportunities, a people occupied, and dreams of Hollywood. Set in Egypt during World War Two, Alexandria... Why? is about a young man who wants to be an actor but is confined by circumstance.
The first of a semi-autobiographical tetralogy, entitled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Alexandria, Why? focuses on a precocious adolescent whose dreams and colorful attempts to become an actor unfold against the vivid backdrop of Alexandria during World War II.
Though certainly not Chahine's first controversial film (his masterpiece "Cairo Station" was banned for twelve years in Egypt after its first run of screenings in 1958, and understandably so, being a film about a sexually frustrated, handicapped fetishist), "Alexandria Why?"
A bustling, novelistically detailed recreation of the cosmopolitan Alexandria during World War II, the film follows Chahine’s teenage alter ego Yehia (Mohsen Mohieddin) as he escapes from the engulfing uncertainty of Egyptian reality into a world of Hollywood fantasy—only to find himself gradually pulled toward student activism.
Country Algeria. Languages Arabic, English, French, German. Studios MISR International Films + 1 more. Genres Drama, War. Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing.
Yehia is a young man living in the cosmopolitan Alexandria during World War II. Inspired by American movies and Shakespeare, he aspires to be an actor, but struggles to pursue his Hollywood dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.
Youssef Chahine was one of Egypt’s most acclaimed film directors. In Alexandria… Why? he recounts his teenage years. World War 2 is raging and Egypt’s economy is collapsing. Chahine’s alter ego, Yehia, escapes into dreams of Hollywood. Actor Mohsen Mohieddin makes Yehia sympathetic despite his tunnel vision. Chahine contrasts his simple coming-of-age tale with messy…
