Faten Hamama ( 1931 - 2015) a late Egyptian actress, was called the "Lady of the Arab Screen". Many consider it a landmark in Arab cinema, as it witnessed many decades of the development of Egyptian cinema and contributed greatly to the formulation of a respectable image of the role of women in general in Arab cinema through its representation since 1940.
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| Lady of the Arab Screen |
In 1996, during the celebration of Egyptian cinema on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her activity, she was chosen as the best actress, and 18 of her films were selected among 150 of the best films produced by Egyptian cinema. Egyptian writers and critics were awarded the Star of the Century Award, and were awarded the Order of the Cedars from Lebanon, the Medal of Intellectual Competence from Morocco, and the First Prize for Arab Women in 2001. A film in the history of Egyptian cinema, and on January 17, 2015, the artist died at the age of 83 due to a health crisis.
Faten Ahmed Hamama was born on May 27, 1931 in Sinbillawain, one of the cities of Dakahlia in Egypt, according to her civil registry, but according to her statements, she was born in the Abdeen neighborhood in Cairo, and her father was an employee in the Ministry of Education. Her fondness for the world of cinema began at an early age when she was six years old when her father took her with him to watch a movie in one of the movie theaters in her city. She told her father that she feels that everyone is applauding her, and since that day her passion for the world of cinema began. 1940), and director Mohamed Karim became convinced of the girl's talent, so he concluded a contract with her father to guarantee her participation in his future cinematic works. After 4 years, the same director summoned her again to appear in front of Mohamed Abdel Wahab in the movie "Bullet in the Heart" (1944), and with her third film. Donia” (1946) was able to establish a foothold in Egyptian cinema and the family moved to Cairo to encourage the emerging artist, and Hamama entered the Higher Institute of Acting in 1946.
Career
When she began her career in Egyptian cinema, the prevailing pattern of expressing the female character of Egyptian women in films was walking at the same pace. A tendency to represent women as a physical commodity to add seduction to the films of the time, and most actresses at that time found singing or dancing.
Before the fifties, she appeared in 30 films and the directors assigned her the role of the poor, innocent girl, but all this changed with the beginning of the fifties. It started in the fifties and as a result of the general trend in Egyptian cinema towards realism by embodying characters closer to reality. In the movie “Struggle in the Valley” (1954), she embodied a different character for the Pasha’s daughter.
In the movie “Professor Fatima” (1952), she played the role of a law student from a middle family and believed that women had a role equal to the role of men in society, and in the movie “Mim Empire” (1972) she played the role of the mother who was responsible for her family in the absence of the father. And in the movie "I Want a Solution" (1975), she played the role of a contemporary woman trying to be treated equally by the law. In 1988, she presented with director Khairy Bishara the movie "A Sweet Day, a Bitter Day", in which she played the role of a widow in an era of openness and fickle principles, and this widow bears many burdens. Too heavy without complaining and all hoping for a sweet day to erase the memory of the bitter day.
The film "Doaa Al-Karawan" was nominated for the Best Film Award at the Berlin International Festival.
The fifties were the beginning of what was called the golden age of Egyptian cinema, and the general trend at that time was towards realism, especially at the hands of director Salah Abu Seif. She starred in the film "For You, O Unjust" (1952), which was considered one of the first realistic films, and this film participated in the Cannes Film Festival. She also participated in the first film by director Youssef Chahine "Baba Amin" (1950) and then in the film Struggle in the Valley (1954), which was a major contender at the Cannes Film Festival. Most critics believe that she has reached the stage of artistic maturity with the movie "Doaa Al-Karwan" (1959), this film that was chosen as one of the best produced by Egyptian cinema and was based on a novel by the Dean of Arabic literature, Taha Hussein, and the character she embodied was very complex from a psychological point of view,
From this film, she began to carefully select her roles, and this movie was followed by the movie “The River of Love” (1960), which was based on Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel “Anna Karenina” and the movie “The Sun Doesn’t Extinguish” (1961) based on Ihsan Abdel Quddus’ novel, and the movie “No Time for Love.” (1963) based on the novel by Youssef Idris. I also participated in the first film directed by Kamal Al-Sheikh, "The House No. 13", which is considered one of the first films of the mystery or mystery. In 1963, she won the award for best actress in the political film "No Time for Love" (1963). Her return to artistic work after a long absence was accompanied by a media frenzy, where she participated in 2000 in the television series Wajh al-Qamar, which was shown on 24 satellite channels and Arab television stations, which was criticized There are many negatives in Egyptian society through her embodiment of the personality of a great TV presenter, and in the series she sympathized with the Palestinian uprising through the series’ heroes watching the events on the land of Palestine on TV screens and supporting them, especially through the comments of the announcer, Ibtisam Al-Bustani (who plays her role) about the intifada and arms dealers, The cause of the media uproar was that the author of the work, Magda Khairallah, filed a lawsuit against the company that produced the series, claiming that the series had been distorted by the many deletions and additions in the text by its heroine, which according to the author was interfering in the director’s work, whether by choosing the stars or in the editing process, but despite this fuss Hamama was chosen as the best actress and the Moon Face series was chosen as the best series.
Awards
- Best actress for many years
- Honorary Doctorate from the American University in Cairo in 1999
- The Star of the Century Award by the Egyptian Writers and Critics Organization in 2000
- The Order of the Cedars from Lebanon (1953 & 2001)
- Medal of Intellectual Competence from Morocco
- The first prize for Arab women in 2001
- Medal of Honor by Gamal Abdel Nasser
- Medal of Honor by Muhammad Anwar Sadat
- Medal of Merit from Morocco's King Hassan II bin Mohammed
- Medal of Honor by Emile Lahoud
- The Arab Women's Medal by Rafic Hariri
- Member of the jury in festivals in Moscow, Cannes, Cairo, Morocco, Venice, Tehran, Alexandria and Jakarta.
- Honorary Doctorate from the American University of Beirut in 2013
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