Faten Hamama
Faten Ahmed Hamama was an Egyptian film and television actress and film producer. She made her screen debut in 1939, when she was only seven years old. Her earliest roles were minor, but her activity and gradual success helped to establish her as a distinguished Egyptian actress. Later revered as an icon in Egyptian cinema. In 1996, nine of the films she starred in were included in the Top hundred films in the history of Egyptian cinema by the cinema critics of Cairo International Film Festival.
After a seven-year hiatus from acting, Hamama returned in 2000 in what was a much anticipated television series, Wageh El Amar. Hamama substantially helped in improving the cinema industry in Egypt and emphasizing the importance of women in cinema and Egyptian society. In 2000, she was selected as Star of the Century by the Egyptian Writers and Critics organization. She was married three times, first to Ezz El-Dine Zulficar and then to Omar Sharif.
Early life and career
Faten Hamama was born in 1931 to an Egyptian lower middle class family in Mansoura, Egypt, but she claimed to have been born in the Abdeen quarter of Cairo. She has an older brother, Mounir, a younger sister, Layla and a younger brother, Mazhar. Her aspiration for acting arose at an early age. When she was six years old, her father took her to the theater to see an Assia Dagher film; when the audience clapped for Assia, she told her father she felt they were clapping for her.When she won a children's beauty pageant in Egypt, her father sent her picture to the director Mohamed Karim who was looking for a young female child to play the role of a small girl with the famous Egyptian actor and musician Mohamed Abdel Wahab in the film Youm Sai'd. After an audition, Abdel Wahab decided she was the one he was looking for. After her role in the film, people called her "Egypt's own Shirley Temple". The director liked her acting and was impressed with her so much that he signed a contract with her father. Four years later, she was chosen by Karim for another role with Abdel Wahab in the film Rossassa Fel Qalb and in another film two years later, Dunya. After her success, Hamama moved with her parents to Cairo and started her study at the High Institute of Acting in 1946.
Career
, an Egyptian actor and director, recognised the young actress's talent so he offered her a lead role in the 1946 film Malak al-Rahma. The film attracted widespread media attention, and Hamama, who was only 15 at the time, became famous for her melodramatic role.File:يوسف وهبي وفاتن حمامة.jpg|thumb|Hamama with Youssef Wahbi in Korsi el-e'traf
In 1949, Hamama had roles in three films with Wahbi: Korsi el-e'traf, Al-Yateematain and Sitt al-Bayt. All were successful films.
The 1950s were the beginning of the golden age of the Egyptian cinema industry, and Hamama played a significant part. In 1950, she starred alongside Mahmoud Zulfikar in the fantasy film; Akhlaq lil baye. In 1951, she starred in the film Lak Yawm Ya Zalem which was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival for the Prix International award. She also played lead roles in Yousef Shaheen's Baba Amin and Sira` Fi al-Wadi l, which was a strong nominee at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival for the Prix International award. Hamama is also known for having played the lead role in the first Egyptian mystery film Al-Manzel Raqam 13. In 1959, she starred in the Ezz El-Dine Zulficar's romantic classic, Bain Al Atlal with her favorite 1950s co-star Emad Hamdy and Egypt's new rising leading man Salah Zulfikar.
In 1963, she received an award for her role in the political film La Waqt Lel Hob. Hamama was also able to make it to Hollywood; in 1963 she had a role in the crime film, Cairo. In 1947, Hamama married producer/film director Ezz El-Dine Zulficar while filming the Abu Zayd al-Hilali film. They started a production company which produced the film Maw`ed Ma` al-Hayat in which she starred. This film earned her the title of the "lady of the Arabic screen". She and Zulficar were divorced in 1954. One year later, she married Egyptian film star Omar Sharif. Meanwhile, Hamama continued to act in films directed by her first husband Zulficar, who was also married in the same year to fellow actress Kawthar Shafik.
In 1954, while filming a Youssef Chahine film, Struggle in the Valley, Hamama refused to have the Egyptian actor Shukry Sarhan as a co-star, and Chahine offered Omar Sharif the role. Sharif had just graduated from college then and was working for his father; she accepted him as her co-star. Hamama's marriage to Sharif in 1955 started a new era of her career, in which the couple made many films together. Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama were the romantic leads of Ayyamna al-Holwa, Ard al-Salam, La Anam and Sayyidat al-Qasr. Their last film together before their divorce was Ezz El-Dine Zulficar's Nahr al-Hob in 1960.
Controversy in the late 1960s
Hamama left Egypt from 1966 to 1970, claiming that she was being harassed by Egyptian Intelligence. She had been a supporter of the 1952 Revolution, but later became an opponent of the Free Officers and their oppressive regime. She said they were "asking her to cooperate" but she apologized and refused. In consequence, she was forbidden to travel or participate in film festivals. She was only able to leave Egypt after many serious disputes, where she lived for a while in Paris, London and Lebanon.While she was away, then President Gamal Abdel Nasser asked famous writers, journalists and friends to try to convince her to return to Egypt. He called her a "national treasure" and even awarded her an honorary decoration in 1965, which she accepted. However, from 1966, she did not return until February 1970. Following her return she played roles conveying messages of democracy. Her first film after her return to Egypt was alongside the Egyptian leading movie star Salah Zulfikar in the 1971 TV short film named Witch, and in the same year, she starred in the 1971 film Thin Thread. She often criticized the laws in Egypt in her films.
In the 1972 film Imbratoriyat Meem, Hamama presented a pro-democratic point of view and received an award from the Soviet Union of Women in the Moscow International Film Festival. Her most significant film was Oridu Hallan, produced by Salah Zulfikar through his production company; Salah Zulfikar Films Company. In this film, she criticised laws governing marriage and divorce in Egypt. After the film, the Egyptian government abrogated a law that forbade wives from divorcing their husbands, therefore allowing khul'.
Later career
As Hamama aged, her acting roles declined and she made fewer films compared to earlier in her career, but nevertheless her films were successful. She made her first television appearances in her late career. She starred in the TV mini-series Damir Ablah Hekmat.After 1993, her career stalled. It was not until 2000 that she returned in the successful TV mini-series Wajh ِِal-Qamar which was broadcast on 23 TV channels in the Middle East. In this mini-series, Hamama portrayed and criticized many problems in Egyptian and Middle Eastern society. Despite some criticisms, the mini-series received much praise and acclaim. Hamama was awarded the Egyptian Best TV Actor of the Year and the mini-series won the Best TV Series Award in the Egyptian Radio and Television Festival. She entered history as the highest-paid actress in an Egyptian television miniseries until 2006, when another actress was paid more.
File:Fatensolution.jpg|thumb|Hamama, with Rushdy Abaza, in I Want a Solution
Before the 1950s, Hamama had leading roles in 30 films, in which she often played the role of a weak, empathetic, poor girl. After the 1950s, Hamama was in search of her real identity and was trying to establish herself as a distinct figure. During this period, her choice of material and roles was somewhat limited. However, film producers soon capitalised on her popularity with audiences in local and Middle Eastern markets. She began to play realistic, strong women, such as in Sira' Fi Al-Wadi where she portrayed a rich man's daughter who, contrary to stereotype, was a realistic woman who helped and supported the poor. In the 1952 Mahmoud Zulfikar's production Miss Fatmah, Hamama starred as a law student who believed women were as important as men in society.
In Imbratoriyat Meem, she played the role of a widow who takes care of her large family and suffers hardship. Her most influential film was Oridu Hallan which criticized the laws of marriage and divorce in Egypt. A law in Egypt that forbade Khul' – a divorce initiated by the wife – was annulled immediately afterwards.
Acting style
Most critics agree that Hamama's most challenging role was in the 1959 film Doaa al-Karawan, which is considered to be one of the best Egyptian films. It is based on the novel of the same name by the prominent Egyptian writer Taha Hussein. In this film, Hamama played the role of Amnah, a young woman who seeks revenge from her uncle for the honour killing of her sister.After this film, Hamama carefully picked her roles. In 1960, she starred in the film Nahr Hob by Ezz El-Dine Zulficar which was based on Leo Tolstoy's well known novel Anna Karenina and in 1961, she played the lead role in the film La Tutf'e al-Shams based on the novel by Ihsan Abdel Quddous.
Death and funeral
Faten Hamama died on 17 January 2015, aged 83. Her son Tarek Sharif did not state the cause of her death.Tributes soon poured in from across the film industry following her death, as well as from government figures. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was on a visit abroad, mourned her death and sent an envoy to her funeral, while a statement from his office described her as a person of "high creative value." "She will remain a symbol of the genuine Egyptian art and commitment to its ethics," the statement added. The Ministry of Culture ordered a two-day period of mourning and a halt in all artistic activity. Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil el-Arabi, called her a "symbol of refined Egyptian and Arab art". The country's dailies gave her prominence in their front pages, with newspaper Al-Akhbar displaying "Farewell to the Lady of the Arabic Screen" as a headline.
The funeral was attended by thousands of mourners who blocked traffic around the mosque where the ceremony was being held. The event was broadcast live on a private channel. Attendees included Minister of Culture Gaber Asfour, former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, as well as several actors and actresses, but not Omar Sharif. King Mohammed VI of Morocco assigned his country's ambassador in Cairo to attend the funeral.