Alexandria… Why?

Youssef Chahine's 1979 film is the first part of the autobiographical tetralogy drawn from his own youth. Amid the poverty and death of the Second World War in Alexandria, eighteen-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of Hollywood dreams; he wants to study filmmaking in America, and the constraints of middle-class life will not allow it. The film's courage lies in showing wartime Alexandria as a multi-religious, multilingual city and in telling at once the relationships between an Egyptian Muslim and a Jewish girl, and between a nationalist and a British soldier. Depicting a homosexual relationship this openly was exceptional in Arab cinema of the time. It won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Who it's for: viewers interested in Arab cinema, autobiographical filmmaking and Egyptian history during the war. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a straightforward narrative, or who will find the mixing of fiction, archive and musical sequences scattered.