Henery Barakat Death Anniversary: 3 Unforgettable Movies of Passionate Director

Barkat, the Arab world-famous Egyptian director who died in 1997, was born on 11 July in the Shoubra district in Cairo, to an aristocratic family of Lebanese origin.

In a career spanning over 40 years, the renowned Egyptian director directed over 160 films and produced hundreds of movies.

The legendary director, who graced Egypt's cinema with his art and knowledge, Henry is sorely missed by millions of his fans. He is known for joint collaborations and associations with legendary Egyptian actors like Farid Shawky and Abdelhaliem.

The film “Doa al karawan” (he Nightingale's Prayer) (1959) dubbed his long-time collaboration with iconic actress Faten Hamam and is considered his advanced movie script.

After that, the remarkable director and Screenwriter became one of the Egyptian and Arab world’s top male directors for much of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the heydays of Egyptian cinema.

In 1930, he graduated from Cairo University with a bachelor’s degree in Law.

Later this year, he traveled to Paris where he started his artistic college studies at the French Institute of Arts, in the field of Cinema, and then he got married to Rosette Dahan with whom he had two daughters, Randa and Jihan.

He came back to Egypt, where he established his directing career in the late 1940s after completing his university degree in Cinema.

After his mother's death, the young man and his brother founded their production studio called Barakat Brothers Films and produced the historical movie ‘Anter Afandi‘ (1934) in which Stephen Rosti starred.

For instance, he acquired an academic qualification and broad artistic culture that helped him more than the others in making good choices and enhancing his performance altogether.

Barkat's movies were the social drama type, bringing light to the day-to-day life of Egyptian society in the ’50s and ’60s, and kept up with that theme until his last movie (Investigation of a female citizen).

The veteran director was the recipient of numerous awards and nominations for excellence throughout his successful career, including two Nominated Golden Berlin Bear for 'Hassan wa Nayima' (1959) and 'Doa al karawan' (1959), and Nominated Golden Palm Haram, El (1965) from Cannes film festival.

Moreover, Barkat's works have won numerous awards in festivals locally and internationally. Two of his iconic films were picked for the acclaimed list of the best 100 Egyptian films in the 20th century; Love Has No Remedy (1952), I Fear for My Child (1953), The Rule of Time (1953), Dayes and Nighets (1955), and The Story of My Love (1956).

The maven director died in Cairo, on 23 February 1997, aged 83.

Although Barkat had plenty of superhit films to his credit, we shortlisted 3 of his hit films on his death anniversary:

Hassan & Naima

Hassan & Naima film was released in the year 1959. It was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. It's a love story like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet taking place in the Egyptian Countryside.

Doa al karawan

This compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor.

Leilet al quabd al Fatma

A tale story of the July 1952 revolution in Egypt through the experiences of Fatma (Hamama), a young betrothed woman. Her history is told in flashbacks as she sits on the roof of her house, intending to jump to her death if her brother carries through with his threat to confine her to a mental institution.

Fatma's Husband-to-be is a fisherman who has been away for a long time looking for work abroad, and she has stayed at home to take care of her two brothers instead of going with him.

When he comes back, her brother Galal sees to it that he is arrested, intending to put him in prison for several years. Fatma, in turn, represents loyal Egyptians who resisted foreign-backed rule even if it meant dying.