Iskanderija, kaman oue kaman

It is from the rights for any film maker to make a movie talking about himself, his own life, his personal weakness, his very personal struggles. But the only condition for this is to create a film that is: (1) beautiful. (2) can be seen and appreciated by anyone else. The problem here with Chahine is that he didn't consider people watching this piece of film. I admit it is beautiful, somewhat attractive and well directed. The songs are touching. If you are a big fan of chahine you will feel interested to see him in person act, dance, sing, and casually involved with real actors and country people in the film. But the question here is i may not be concerned to know about this very personal struggling of him. I got the feeling that Chahine talks to himself loudly in this film and it may be rude of me to listen to him! I have nothing to do with his problems with his first actor or with his eternal Hamlet dream. He might have inserted the story of the artists strike and so on for this very same reason. He wanted us to feel it is a general film for anyone not only for him.

According to me, a good autobiography film means that the director is looking into his own mirror but with the audience appearing with him. Here i felt that Chahine is alone in the mirror. My advice for you, if you like Chahine watch the film, but don't expect a masterpiece.