An Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since 1950.
His film debut was Baba Amin in 1950: one year later, with Nile Boy in 1951 he was first invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1970 he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival.
With The Sparrow in 1973, in which he showed his political opinions after the Six Day War with Israel, he directed the first Egypt-Algeria coproduction.
He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria...Why? in 1978, the first installment in what would prove to be an autobiographic quartet, completed with An Egyptian Story in 1982, Alexandria, Again and Again in 1990, and Alexandria...New York in 2004.
Chahine was born into a Christian Egyptian family of Lebanese origins in Alexandria, Egypt.
After one year at Alexandria University, he moved to the United States to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.
After spending five weeks in a French hospital while being in a comma, Chahine passed away at the age of 82.
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