A Cinderella Tale

A documentary looks at late 50s Egyptian actor Soad Hosnis impact on Arab cinema

As a student of film theory in Australia in the 70s,filmmaker Rania Stephan was enchanted by the world of Arab cinema. And Egyptian actor Soad Hosni became her inspiration. She represented a golden era of cinema in Egypt during the late 50s and 60s, says Stephan,whose debut feature The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (2011) was screened at Khoj Studios on Friday evening. While pursuing cinema studies,I was wondering why I dont know Arabic cinema so well. I saw her in a 1979 film Al-Mutawahisha for the first time and I became devoted to her, adds the Lebanese filmmaker,who started researching on Hosni after her tragic death in 2001. She completed her film in 2011.

The 70-minute film gives a poignant account of her acting career. It not only captures the versatility of the actor but also paints a portrait of Egyptian cinema at the time . Divided into three acts,with a prologue and epilogue,the documentary is a series of moving images,embedded with dialogues and sound clips from Hosnis films.

She acted in 82 Egyptian films until she left cinema in 1991. I have used images and short clips from 72 of those films. I thought we had to do something with her image and to inquire about her persona on-screen. She was like the Cinderella of Egyptian cinema and her persona was rich,complex and constructed with various elements such as singing,dancing, explains 53-year-old Stephan,who set out to make the film that traces the representation of the actor in cinema,rather than being a biography on Hosni.

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The title of the film is symbolic,as it refers to how Hosnis fate and that of Egyptian cinema were entwined. The three disappearances allude to the end of her acting career in 1991,which symbolised the end of an era in Egyptian cinema; the end of VHS tapes; and to her alleged suicide in 2001 after she fell off a residential tower in London. An entire generation of cine lovers were associated with her. She was cute,funny,intelligent and naughty and had all the Egyptian qualities. Only after my research could I understand why she was so appealing, says Stephan,who compiled the footage from hours of VHS tapes.

The film will be screened at Khoj Studios till August 18th

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A Cinderella Tale

A documentary looks at late 50s Egyptian actor Soad Hosnis impact on Arab cinema

A documentary looks at late 50s Egyptian actor Soad Hosnis impact on Arab cinema