Alexandria Again and Forever

Youssef Chahine's 1989 film is the third part of the series drawn from his own life. In 1987 workers in the Egyptian film industry go on hunger strike; Yehia joins the action while dealing with a matter of his own. At the centre is the director's attachment to an actor. Amr had played Yehia in the earlier films; the breaking of that relationship is the real subject, and Chahine gives it without concealment. Chahine plays Yehia himself. The narrative uses musical passages, imagined scenes and footage of the strike together; the structure is deliberately loose and the genre keeps changing. Who it's for: those who follow Chahine's cinema and autobiographical films. Who it's not for: people who have not seen the first two parts; the narrative assumes you know what came before.