
Directing
Salah Abu Seif
Born — Died
1915-05-10 — 1996-06-22
Place of birth
Egypt
Known for
Directing
Credits
42 titles
Salah Abu Seif (صلاح أبو سيف; 1915 – 1996) was one of the most famous Egyptian film directors. Many of the 41 films he directed, many of which were based on novels by Naguib Mahfouz, are considered Egyptian classics. Known as the Godfather of Egyptian neorealism, Abu Seif pioneered shooting on location - though he also used sets - in places none of his predecessors had dared to visit, like ghurza (the equivalent of old Chinese opium dens), brothels and impoverished areas whose existence had never been officially acknowledged.
Known for
8.2Set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s, the story follows a middle-class Egyptian family grappling with the hardships of life after the death of their father, their sole breadwinner. The mother and her four children—three brothers and their sister, Nefisah—struggle to avoid slipping into poverty. They all go in different directions which aren't exactly good.
The Beginning and the End
1960
8.5Faiza is raised in a family where the mother and the two sisters work in illegal acts. They try to drag her in with them but she refuses. She studies to become a school teacher and decides to move to the countryside away from them, but she finds other temptations that try to lure her in.
The Barred Road
1958
6.4In Alexandria a terrifying phenomenon of the disappearance of women, spreads terror in the city. Police work to unravel its secrets. Officer Ahmed is preparing a plan to uncover who's behind it and it turns out to be the gang of Raya and Sakina, who were targeting women to steal their jewelry.
Rayya and Sekina
1952
7.8Shousha El-Sakka, fears death because it took his wife. He meets with Shehata, and later knows that he is an undertaker assistant and he becomes pessimistic of him ,but when Shehata dies, Shousha is saddened by his passing.
The Water-Carrier Is Dead
1977
7.0Amal marries the train driver Mahmoud, who treats her harshly. She feels neglected despite her husband's presence, Mahmoud travels to another city and asks his assistant Hassan to look after his wife. During his absence, Amal expresses admiration for Hassan's morals, which soon turns into a special love.
Agony of Love
1960
7.1Abdel Sabour was a thief and a smuggler known as The Beast to the people in one of the villages of upper Egypt; everyone was afraid of him, including the police. He enjoyed the protection of Redwan Pasha, who in turn used him during elections to eliminate his rivals. Officer Raouf Saleh was sent to the village with his wife and son with the assignment of arresting The Beast. However The Beast and his gang worked together from the beginning trying to dispose of the officer and his family in any way possible.
The Beast
1954
Film credits
Behind the camera
8.2Set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s, the story follows a middle-class Egyptian family grappling with the hardships of life after the death of their father, their sole breadwinner. The mother and her four children—three brothers and their sister, Nefisah—struggle to avoid slipping into poverty. They all go in different directions which aren't exactly good.
The Beginning and the End
1960
8.2Set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s, the story follows a middle-class Egyptian family grappling with the hardships of life after the death of their father, their sole breadwinner. The mother and her four children—three brothers and their sister, Nefisah—struggle to avoid slipping into poverty. They all go in different directions which aren't exactly good.
The Beginning and the End
1960
8.5Faiza is raised in a family where the mother and the two sisters work in illegal acts. They try to drag her in with them but she refuses. She studies to become a school teacher and decides to move to the countryside away from them, but she finds other temptations that try to lure her in.
The Barred Road
1958
6.4In Alexandria a terrifying phenomenon of the disappearance of women, spreads terror in the city. Police work to unravel its secrets. Officer Ahmed is preparing a plan to uncover who's behind it and it turns out to be the gang of Raya and Sakina, who were targeting women to steal their jewelry.
Rayya and Sekina
1952
6.4In Alexandria a terrifying phenomenon of the disappearance of women, spreads terror in the city. Police work to unravel its secrets. Officer Ahmed is preparing a plan to uncover who's behind it and it turns out to be the gang of Raya and Sakina, who were targeting women to steal their jewelry.
Rayya and Sekina
1952
7.8Shousha El-Sakka, fears death because it took his wife. He meets with Shehata, and later knows that he is an undertaker assistant and he becomes pessimistic of him ,but when Shehata dies, Shousha is saddened by his passing.
The Water-Carrier Is Dead
1977
7.0Amal marries the train driver Mahmoud, who treats her harshly. She feels neglected despite her husband's presence, Mahmoud travels to another city and asks his assistant Hassan to look after his wife. During his absence, Amal expresses admiration for Hassan's morals, which soon turns into a special love.
Agony of Love
1960
7.0Amal marries the train driver Mahmoud, who treats her harshly. She feels neglected despite her husband's presence, Mahmoud travels to another city and asks his assistant Hassan to look after his wife. During his absence, Amal expresses admiration for Hassan's morals, which soon turns into a special love.
Agony of Love
1960
7.1Abdel Sabour was a thief and a smuggler known as The Beast to the people in one of the villages of upper Egypt; everyone was afraid of him, including the police. He enjoyed the protection of Redwan Pasha, who in turn used him during elections to eliminate his rivals. Officer Raouf Saleh was sent to the village with his wife and son with the assignment of arresting The Beast. However The Beast and his gang worked together from the beginning trying to dispose of the officer and his family in any way possible.
The Beast
1954
7.1Abdel Sabour was a thief and a smuggler known as The Beast to the people in one of the villages of upper Egypt; everyone was afraid of him, including the police. He enjoyed the protection of Redwan Pasha, who in turn used him during elections to eliminate his rivals. Officer Raouf Saleh was sent to the village with his wife and son with the assignment of arresting The Beast. However The Beast and his gang worked together from the beginning trying to dispose of the officer and his family in any way possible.
The Beast
1954
7.6A story in the Egyptian countryside about an unjust mayor who controls everything in the village with his power.
The Second Wife
1967
7.6A story in the Egyptian countryside about an unjust mayor who controls everything in the village with his power.
The Second Wife
1967
6.5The story of Mayor Abdul Razek al-Sharshabi (Omar al-Sharif) when his younger son, Tawfiq (Khalid al-Nabawi) is called for army recruitment, his wife (Safiya al-Omari), rejects it, suggesting to send someone else to go instead. So the Mayor persuaded a poor father named Abdul-Muqeem (Izzat al-Alayli) to send his only son Masrey instead.
Citizen Masrey
1991
5.5The film is an adaptation of a novel by Ismåeel Walieddin. The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, gets an apartment for his parents, and obtains a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a homosexual man.
The Malatily Bathhouse
1973
5.5The film is an adaptation of a novel by Ismåeel Walieddin. The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, gets an apartment for his parents, and obtains a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a homosexual man.
The Malatily Bathhouse
1973
5.5The film is an adaptation of a novel by Ismåeel Walieddin. The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, gets an apartment for his parents, and obtains a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a homosexual man.
The Malatily Bathhouse
1973
8.0When her stepfather tries to rape her, Amal kills him and flees. She finds refuge in the house of the fine artist Ahmed Khaled who falls for her, but his protégé, the sculptor Sherif, also falls for her and competes with Ahmed to win her favor.
A Bit of Torment
1969
10.0A historical epic about the battle of Qadiseya, which was helmed by the Arabian knight Saad Ibn Abi Waqas, and which enabled Muslims from conquering Persia in 636 A.D.
Al-Qadisiyya
1981
10.0A historical epic about the battle of Qadiseya, which was helmed by the Arabian knight Saad Ibn Abi Waqas, and which enabled Muslims from conquering Persia in 636 A.D.
Al-Qadisiyya
1981
7.7An aristocratic family is torn down after the death of its patriarch. He leaves alone his widow wife and five of his daughters and sons. His eldest son, Ahmed (Shukry Sarhan), takes the role of the man in the house and helps his mother take care of his brother and sisters. Mamdouh (Ahmed Ramzy), his brother, is a self-centered man who refuses to follow his brother’s step and decides to make his own decisions in his life.
The Sun Will Never Set
1961
9.0With her husband terminally ill, a wife becomes the target of her husband's friend who wants her money so bad that he kills his friend and proposes to his newly-widowed wife.
Lak Yom Ya Zalem
1951
9.0With her husband terminally ill, a wife becomes the target of her husband's friend who wants her money so bad that he kills his friend and proposes to his newly-widowed wife.
Lak Yom Ya Zalem
1951
9.0With her husband terminally ill, a wife becomes the target of her husband's friend who wants her money so bad that he kills his friend and proposes to his newly-widowed wife.
Lak Yom Ya Zalem
1951
6.8Haridy arrives at the vegetable market in search of a job opportunity, he works for Master Abu Zaid and after a while he separates and marries Hossnyia. Haridy forms an alliance against Abu Zaid, but he soon becomes more powerful and his condition turns to worse.
The Thug
1957
6.8Haridy arrives at the vegetable market in search of a job opportunity, he works for Master Abu Zaid and after a while he separates and marries Hossnyia. Haridy forms an alliance against Abu Zaid, but he soon becomes more powerful and his condition turns to worse.
The Thug
1957
7.3A rural mother sells her only cow in order to enroll her son, an imam (Shukri Sarhan) at Dar al-Uloom College. When an imam arrives in Cairo, he rents a room in the Citadel area from a domineering woman named Shafa'at (Tahiya Karioka) who is fascinated by his youth and vitality and lures him into practicing vice with her. As a result, he stumbles in his studies and health. At this time, a girl whom she and her father knew from a young age helps him to get rid of all the corruption in which he lives, and her father advises him to stay away from intercessions, but the intercessions plots against him in an attempt to stay with her.
A Woman's Youth
1956
7.3A rural mother sells her only cow in order to enroll her son, an imam (Shukri Sarhan) at Dar al-Uloom College. When an imam arrives in Cairo, he rents a room in the Citadel area from a domineering woman named Shafa'at (Tahiya Karioka) who is fascinated by his youth and vitality and lures him into practicing vice with her. As a result, he stumbles in his studies and health. At this time, a girl whom she and her father knew from a young age helps him to get rid of all the corruption in which he lives, and her father advises him to stay away from intercessions, but the intercessions plots against him in an attempt to stay with her.
A Woman's Youth
1956
NRThree different stories about three women. Three women, the first (Hana), who loves (Adel), but she meets (Sami) to also fall in love with him, the second widow (Tawahida), who loves (Yusef) the employee of the Muslim Council, but he is married, and the third (Shams), the singer who falls in love with Fathi But he lives at a loss because of her sitting with clients, what happens to the three women
Three Women
1969
7.2Hamza "a member of the volunteer National Guard" meets up with the teacher Fawzya "Faten", after the fire of Cairo broke out, the British trying to capture all the volunteers in the National Guard , Hamza hiding in the house of one of his friend, and Fawzya help him, and she is trying to formation its own cell in order to hit the English forces in the Canal zone.
No Time for Love
1963
6.7Part of a trilogy by Salah Abu Seif about women’s empowerment. The film takes place in late 1940s / early 1950s urban Egypt, and tells the story of a young woman’s search for personal freedom and a fulfilling identity as a young modern Egyptian.
I Am Free
1959
8.0Two chemists working at the same laboratory compete over the heart of the daughter of the laboratory owner. When the girl chooses one, the other gets jealous and ploys a scheme that aggravates and leads to a great explosion and an even greater tragedy.
The Avenger
1947
8.0Two chemists working at the same laboratory compete over the heart of the daughter of the laboratory owner. When the girl chooses one, the other gets jealous and ploys a scheme that aggravates and leads to a great explosion and an even greater tragedy.
The Avenger
1947
6.0Hassan, frustrated by poverty, becomes involved with a wealthy woman and eventually abandons his family for her.
Foreman Hassan
1952
6.0Hassan, frustrated by poverty, becomes involved with a wealthy woman and eventually abandons his family for her.
Foreman Hassan
1952
6.0Monier takes advantage of Zaghloul's naivety to take advantage of his family's financial resources to fund his gambling addiction. But he takes it one step further when he throws Zaghloul into the Nile and pretends that he couldn't save him.
The Criminal
1978
6.0Monier takes advantage of Zaghloul's naivety to take advantage of his family's financial resources to fund his gambling addiction. But he takes it one step further when he throws Zaghloul into the Nile and pretends that he couldn't save him.
The Criminal
1978
8.6In the blasting heat of a Friday afternoon in Cairo, a group of people – among them a movie star, a thief, a madman, a cook and a pregnant woman – find themselves trapped in an elevator for 12 hours.
Between Heaven and Earth
1959
8.6In the blasting heat of a Friday afternoon in Cairo, a group of people – among them a movie star, a thief, a madman, a cook and a pregnant woman – find themselves trapped in an elevator for 12 hours.
Between Heaven and Earth
1959
When a committee is formed to serve the people of the neighborhood and Mr. Monjid is chosen head, dispute finds its way to the committee due to their different approaches, as Monjid believes that problems should be solved amicably, and Hanafi, one of the members, believes the law should be their reference.
Case 68
1968
When a committee is formed to serve the people of the neighborhood and Mr. Monjid is chosen head, dispute finds its way to the committee due to their different approaches, as Monjid believes that problems should be solved amicably, and Hanafi, one of the members, believes the law should be their reference.
Case 68
1968

