Hamama, Faten

The early years

Faten was born into a poor Muslim family. Her father, Ahmed Hamama, worked as a school teacher in Mansour, and her mother was a housewife. Faten had an older brother Munir, a younger sister Layla and a younger brother Mazhar.

The photo of seven-year-old Faten was sent by parents to the popular Egyptian weekly Messavar, where she was noticed by film director Mohammed Karim, who was looking for a little girl for a role in the film Happy Day ( 1938 ). At the age of thirteen, Faten entered the school of theatrical art in Cairo and since that time she has acted a lot, making several movie roles a year.

Movie career

A new stage in the career of the young actress began with the melodramas of the director of Youssef Wahbi, famous in Egypt, “Angel of Mercy” and “Red Mask” (both - 1946 ).

Before the 1952 revolution in Egypt, three-quarters of film production was musical comedy. The rest of the films are detective stories and melodramas, also with obligatory songs and belly dancing. After the July Revolution in the 1950s, a whole galaxy of new directors appeared in Egyptian cinematography, and this period is commonly called the "golden age of Egyptian cinema." Faten Hamama successfully fit into the updated cinema, playing with such masters of directing as Salah Abu Safe in the box office hit of those years shown at the Cannes Film Festival “Your Day, Despot” (1952) and Yussef Shahin , whose actress starred in his debut film “ The Son of Amin ”( 1950 ), and then in his most significant work“ Sky of Hell ”( 1954 , at the Soviet box office -“ Fight in the Valley ”), also shown at the Cannes Film Screening and received international recognition.

Over the years, Soviet films were shown films featuring Faten Hamama's “Fight in the Valley” ( 1954 ), “ Meeting with Happiness ” ( 1954 ), “ Love and Tears ” ( 1956 ), “ Open Door ” ( 1963 ), “ I Need a Decision” ! "( 1975 ) - films that rise above the average level of Egyptian cinematography.

Faten Hamama left Egypt between 1966-1971 due to political pressure on her. During these years, she will live in Lebanon , then in London . The President of Egypt of that period, Gamal Abdel Nasser, will ask some famous people of the country (critics and writers) to turn to the actress and try to convince her to return to her homeland, because according to him, "Faten Hamama is a national treasure." Her return to Egypt in 1971 breathed life into Egyptian cinema.

In the 1980-1990s, the actress starred very little, and subsequently generally left the cinema for a well-deserved rest, occasionally appearing on television in TV shows. In Cairo, on M. Raude Street, a cinema opened named after her "Faten Hamama".

Personal life

In 1947, Faten Hamama married director Ezzel Dine Zulficar, from whom she gave birth to a daughter, Nadia Zulfikar.

In 1954, the couple filed for divorce, as Faten Hamama met on the set of the film “The Sky of Hell” ( 1954 ) with the young actor Omar Sharif , whom he would fall in love with. Sharif converted to Islam and married her after her divorce from Zulfikar. The couple will star in many films of the 1950s and their romantic relationship is clearly visible on the movie screen. In this union, the son of Tarek Sharif will be born, however, due to the constant filming of Omar Sharif in Hollywood and Europe in the 1960-1970s, their marriage will crack and in 1974 they will file a divorce.

Faten Hamama later married Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, an Egyptian doctor ^[6] . She lived in Cairo.

• National Award for acting in the film "My Past" (1951).
• Award for acting in Beirut for his role in the film “Have Mercy” (1954).
• Prize of the Egyptian Catholic Cinema Center for its role in the film "Meeting with Happiness" (1954).
• Award for Best Actress at the IFF in Jakarta for his role in the film Open Door (1964).
• Special mention at the IFF in Tehran in 1972 for his role in the film Thin Thread (1971).
• Special mention at the IFF in Tehran in 1975 for his role in the film “I Need a Solution!”.
• International Film Festival in Cairo and International Film Festival in Tehran in 1977 for his role in the film Afwah wa araneb.
• IFF Carthage Prize in 1988 for his role in the film Bitter Days ... Good Days (1988).
• She was awarded two IFF Special Awards in Cairo (1991, 1996) and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the IFF in Alexandria, Egypt, 2001.

• Faten Hamama on the Egyptian website elcinema.com (ar .)
• Faten Hamama on the Egyptian website elfilm.com (ar.)

• “Cinema Dictionary” / Edited by S. I. Yutkevich. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1986-1987. - S. 463. - 640 p.
• A. L. Sokolskaya. "Actors of foreign cinema." - M .: Art, 1965. - T. second edition. - S. 67-74. - 136 p.