Salah Abu Seif

Abu-Seif was born in 1915, in Cairo's ancient quarter of Boolaq, to landowning parents from Upper Egypt. He was 12 years old when he saw the first full- length feature film made by an Egyptian, in 1927, at a local movie-house - earlier films were imports accompanied by Egyptian narrations, or made by Europeans living in Egypt. As the son of a conservative family, Abu-Seif graduated from the Cairo College of Commerce and Economics in 1932, while at the same time working as a freelance reporter following movie stars. But it was at his day job as a clerk in a factory that he met the Egyptian film-maker Niazy Mustapha, who was on a shoot there. Mustapha made him a film editor.

In 1939, Abu-Seif won a scholarship to study film in Paris. Within five years of his return in 1942, he had established himself as one of the most avant-garde second generation film-makers in the country. He pioneered shooting on location - though he also used reconstructions - in places none of his predecessors had dared to visit, like ghurza (the equivalent of old Chinese opium dens), brothels and impoverished areas whose existence had never been officially acknowledged.{{Cite web|title=Obituary: Salah Abu-Seif|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-salah-abu-seif-1338978.html|date=1996-06-27|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2020-05-25}}

Abu Seif began his career as a film editor before making his feature directorial debut with the film Always in my Heart in 1946.{{Cite journal |last=Elnaccash |first=Ataa |date=1968 |title=Egyptian Cinema: A Historical Outline |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334315?origin=crossref |journal=African Arts |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=52–71 |doi=10.2307/3334315 |issn=0001-9933}}

Many of his films had political implications. The Case '68 and Malatily Bathhouse were influenced by the Six-Day War.{{Cite journal |last=Samak |first=Qussai |date=1977 |title=The Politics of Egyptian Cinema |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3011811?origin=crossref |journal=MERIP Reports |issue=56 |pages=12–15 |doi=10.2307/3011811 |issn=0047-7265}} Both films dealt with the changing social climate of post-war Egypt. They experienced troubled production and release history, including protests against their release by the Arab Socialist Union.

His style was initially influenced by the works of Egyptian director Kamal Selim.{{Cite journal |last=Elnaccash |first=Ataa |date=1968 |title=Egyptian Cinema: A Historical Outline |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334315?origin=crossref |journal=African Arts |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=52–71 |doi=10.2307/3334315 |issn=0001-9933}}

Abu Seif first encountered neorealism on a trip to Rome, and adopted techniques used by Italian filmmakers, such as dubbing over dialogue to ensure the quality of the audio. He employed several distinct techniques in his films, such as the use of popular music, realistic characters and storylines, and location shooting. When locations were not available to him for filming, he reconstructed sets with great detail to render them as accurate as possible to their real world counterparts.{{Cite journal |last=Mejri |first=Ouissal |date=June 2011 |title=SALAH ABU SEIF AND ARAB NEOREALISM |url=https://widescreenjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/salah-abu-seif-and-arab-neorealism.pdf |journal=Wide Screen Journal |volume=3 |issue=1}}

Abu Seif’s preference for realistic stories and settings allowed him to form a close relationship with his audience, who would have seen themselves represented in his films. He was described as “the artist of the Egyptian people” due to the reflective and observational nature of his work.

• Kamal El Sheikh.
• Hassan Al-Imam.
• Mahmoud Zulfikar.

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• {{IMDb name|id=0008906|name=Salah AbouSeif}}.

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Category:Egyptian film directors

Category:1915 births

Category:1996 deaths