Today, Jun. 11 marks the 107th anniversary of the birth of Henry Barakat. As we celebrate the birth anniversary of this iconic director; check out 10 fascinating facts about him.
Barkat, the Arab world-famous Egyptian director who died in 1997, was born on 11 July in Shoubra district in Cairo, to an aristocratic family of Lebanese origin.
Late Egyptian director Barakat, born as Henry Antoun Barakat, is known for directing over 160 films and producing hundreds of movies.
The legendary director, who graced the Egyptian 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.
Barkat is also credited to giving Egyptian cinema some of its best talents – he introduced Faten Hamama, discovered talents like Soad Hosny (popularly called Cinderella), writer-director Salah Zulfkar, and ace cinematographer, Salah AbuSeif.
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 own production studio called Barakat Brothers Films and produced the historical movie ‘Anter Afandi‘ (1934) in which Stephn 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 the light to the day-to-day life of the Egyptian society in the ’50s, ’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.
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