Remembering Henry Barakat on His 100th Birth Anniv.

Sunday, June 11, marks the 100th birth anniversary of the late veteran director Henry Barakat. He passed away in 1997.

Barakat was a legendary cinema maker with over 86 films registered under his name, among them celebrated classics like The Curlew’s Prayer (1959), The Sin (1965), A Man in Our House (1961), The Open Door (1963) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1951).

Born in 1914 in Shubra District, Cairo, he earned his degree from Cairo’s law faculty in 1939.

Following his passion, 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.

Barakat's cinematic journey started in 1942 when he joined the Asia Dagher Films production company.

He was a part of numerous romantic films made by prominent Lebanese filmmaker Asia Dagher.

He got to learn the tricks of filmmaking under Dagher. After learning these techniques for a brief period, the veteran director embarked on his journey of independent filmmaking.

Throughout his career, he made a number of memorable romance films: Passion Beach (1950) and Heart to Heart (1951) both starring Leila Mourad; Tryst (1956) and Nowadays Girls (1957), both starring Abdel-Halim Hafez; The Lost Love (1970) starring Soad Hosni; as well as seventeen films starring Faten Hamama.

The prizes that Barkat got in his career are numerous and his unique style can be distinguished easily by the critics.

Revisiting Barkat's most iconic films on his birth anniversary

Hassan & Naima

The Hassan & Naima film was released in 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 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.