Part of CHAHINE: THE RESTORATION PROJECT, YOUSSEF CHAHINE RETROSPECTIVE

Alexandria, Why? Marked a radical, newly introspective turn in Chahine’s active career, a sharp departure from his Fifties musicals and melodramas and his later epics and political films. The first of four film semi – autobiography, entitled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Alexandria, Why? Focuses on a precocious adolescent whose dreams and colorful attempts to become an actor unfold against the vivid backdrop of Alexandria during World War II. A rich cast inspires Chahine’s young thespian hero with a wealth of dramatic subplots – at turns hilarious and touching – about wartime life. The autobiographical nature and nostalgic flavor of Alexandria, Why? Make it one of Chahine’s most accessible works, a charming and entertaining film that also delivers a potently subversive and impassioned anti – war message. (Harvard Film Archive)