The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema

A rigorous examination of the work of Egypt’s best-known filmmaker, new in paperback

This book presents a comprehensive study of the work of Youssef Chahine. Its methodological approach, and more precisely, the discussion of the theme of Arab national unity from a post-colonial point of view, emphasizes the ideological underpinnings of this Egyptian director’s themes as well as his esthetics. Malek Khouri focuses on the interaction between Chahine’s personal and political preoccupations, his eclectic cinematic style, and his devotion to connecting with a wide audience of filmgoers.

The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema is an important contribution to original scholarship in the fields of cultural studies, sociology of film, and history of cinema, and will be of great interest to scholars, students, and cinema lovers all over the world.

Malek Khouri is professor and director of the film program at the American University in Cairo, where he also served as chair of the Department of the Arts from 2011 to 2013. He is the author of Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46 (2007) and Framing Arab Cinemas: American Mainstream Readings and the Politics of Reception (forthcoming), and co-editor of Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema (2006).