He’s a historical figure of the Egyptian cinema; one of the names that underlined its golden age. Indeed, Tewfik Salah forms with Salah Abou Seif and Youssef Chahine the three pillars who have given this cinematography an international renown and a definite position in its socio-cultural environment.
Tewfik Salah was born in 1926. After studies at the University of Cairo, and a degree in literature, he comes to France to study cinema. He immerses himself in the artistic and cinematographic trends which enliven the French capital.
He discovers Italian neorealism and poetical realism. Both are definitely going to influence his career and aesthetic choices. Back in Egypt, he makes several short films before directing “Fools Alley” in 1955: an immediate success for this film describing, in a tragically comic manner, the atmosphere of a working-class neighbourhood going wild while running after an illusion (a winning lottery ticket).
The themes and tendencies of his filmmaking are all there: a cinema relying upon a literary heritage - “Fools Alley” is adapted from Naguib Mahfouz; a cinema stripping down a reality made of fake and semblance; a cinema for the dignity of those on the lower level and the exiles. “The Rebels”, in 1966, is a deep analysis of power, a call for sharing and exchanges.
In 1972, “The Dupes” is adapted from Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, about the tragedy of a whole nation. All these choices are going to reduce his margin to manoeuvre; Tewfik Salah won’t be a prolific filmmaker; his movies are few but every time they have a message: a point of view about the cinema which relates a point of view on the world.
Editorials
Tewfik Salah, for those on the lower level
