Alexandria why

Youssef Chahine Mohsen Zayed. Top credits Director Youssef Chahine. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Naglaa Fathi Sarah as Sarah. Ahmed Zaki Ibrahim as Ibrahim. Mahmoud Al Meleji Qadri as Qadri. Yusuf Wahbi. Yehia Chahine. Layla Fawzi. Akela Kateb. Zeinat Sedky. Seif Abdelrahman. The stairs, as he walks on them, flash on and off with lights of different colours.

To a casual student of movies, this comes across as a monumental howler. That musical number is from the Vincente Minnelli classic An American in Paris a film made nearly a decade after the events of Alexandria…Why?

Its inclusion makes no sense on a literal level and seems like a blatant violation of fact. It is then we have to realise this is a film by Youssef Chahine, a director to whom facts were a great deal less important than truth.

That handsome Frenchman strutting up and down the stairs is not a Frenchman at all. His real name was Lambros Worloou and he was an Alexandrian of Greek parents. So what we are seeing at the start of Alexandria…Why? Edits mix in historical footage, making the war an integral part of everyday life.

Children on stage act out the war and its adult world. School life itself becomes a war, school elections a fight for democracy. This is also a film of British laziness, incompetence, and evil; bastard colonisers that draw borders and ruin lives. Yet Alexandria It is passionately made, with uplifting music attached to death and destruction.

It's about dancing when there's nobody left to watch you. The ending may be uncertain, but a new journey begins. Watch all you want. More Details. Watch offline. Available to download. This movie is