“Jamila” ( arab. جميلة , Djamilah ) - Egyptian film of 1958 , drama directed by Yusef Shahin with the participation of the popular Egyptian movie star Magda . The film is based on the story of Yusuf al-Sibai and is based on the facts of life of a real person - the Algerian revolutionary Jamilya Buhired . Personality is ambiguous, for the left forces she was a patriot and a heroine, who was even called Algerian Jeanne d'Arc , and the Algerians compared her (apparently at the suggestion of communists from a friendly USSR ) with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya [1] , for the right she was nothing but a terrorist.
| Jamila | |
|---|---|
| Arab. ميلة ( Djamilah ) | |
 | |
| Genre | drama |
| Producer | Yousef Shahin |
| Author script | Naguib Mahfouz , Abdarrahman ash-Sharkavi , Ali az-Zarkani , Wajih Najib |
| In the main cast | Magda , Ahmad Mazhar , Salah Zulfikar |
| Operator | Abdel Aziz Fahmy |
| Film company | Magda Film |
| Duration | 123 min. |
| A country |  Egypt |
| Tongue | |
| Year | 1958 |
| IMDb | |
Content
Story
The film is based on real facts of the history of the struggle of the Algerian people for independence. The film tells about the Algerian girl Jamila Buhired , who fought with the French colonialists for the independence of their country, using terrorist methods. Together with the legendary Yusef, admiring his heroism and courage, she fought in the ranks of the partisans.
Once, during the next operation, Jamila was captured by French soldiers. She was tortured to get her to say where the leader of the partisans, Yusef, is. Jamila steadfastly endured all the torture and was sentenced to death.
Cast
- Magda - Jamila
- Ahmed Mazkhar - Yousef
- Salah Zulfikar - Azzam
- Rushdie Abaza - Bijar
- Zahratel Ala - Boaz
- Kariman - Hasiba
- Farida Fahmy - Simone
- Mahmud al-Miligi
- Hussein Riyad - Habib
About the film
When the film was being shot, the real Jamila Buhired was still in a French prison. According to the plot of the film, the heroine boldly goes to death, but in real life the French authorities, under the pressure of public opinion, were forced to replace the death penalty with penal servitude for life. However, she was subsequently fully rehabilitated and released from prison. In fact, the French lawyer Jacques Verges was most involved in her release, whom Jameel would later marry after being released from prison.
The film could not be released on the screen for a long time, as the French authorities in every way prevented this. In 1959, he was entered into the Moscow International Film Festival competition, but again, at the request of the French side, the film was shown only out of the competition. In the same 1959 film was released in wide release in Egypt and some other countries ( China , Japan , Hungary ...) [2] . Since October 1962, the film was shown in the Soviet film distribution [3] .
Criticism
Despite the fact that in the USSR of those years they supported the struggle of the Algerian people against the French colonialists and all sorts of propaganda propaganda of the friendly Soviet people was directed only for such film projects, the film was not supported by Soviet film critics at the appropriate level. Opinion of film critic I. Levshina in the main Soviet cinema “ Soviet Screen ”:
The authors of "Jamily" could not do without the falsely understood "exciting" intrigue, without sentimental tearfulness. For the sake of external entertaining, the course of historical events has been significantly changed. Of course, a work of art is unthinkable without changing the actual events in the artist’s imagination. But such a change should make the essence of the phenomenon clearer and more expressive.
And one more quote:
... This real Jamila was able to tell the Tribunal: “By killing us, you are killing the freedom-loving traditions of our country, compromising her honor!” Dear, tearful and naive heroine of the film could not say these proud and angry words, because she is very little like the real Jamilu ...
- I. Levshin “Soviet screen”, 1962, № 20, p. 18. [1]
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Soviet Screen, 1962, No. 20, p. 18.
- ↑ al-jazirah.com (are.)
- ↑ The film was shown in the Soviet box office since October 1962, by the s / c of the USSR Goskino No. 1172/62 - published: “Annotated catalog of films of the current fund: Feature films”, М .: “Art” -1963, P. 83.
Links
- Jamila on the Internet Movie Database
- “Jamila” on the Arabic website elcinema.com (are.) (English)