Mohamed Bayoumi, who died on 15 July 60 years ago, worked at the dawn of the moving picture when, within years of the invention of the Cinématography, Egypt became the first country in the region to make cinema. His memory is an opportunity to remember that era.
The majority of historians believe the first screening of the Lumière Brothers’ film in the Middle East took place in Alexandria on 5 November 1896, less than a year after the world’s first screening, which was on 28 December 1895 at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. Then, 23 days later, the second screening was held in Cairo. In 1897, the Lumières sent their colleague, the French-Italian photographer Alexandre Promio, to make a few short documentaries at different locations in Egypt, mainly Alexandria and Cairo. The result of this shooting campaign was 35 short films.
It is no surprise that the Lumières chose Alexandria – a cosmopolitan hub, home to Turks, Greeks, Italians, French, English as well as Egyptians – to be their primary destination in the region.
In the first decade of the 20th century, both residents of Egypt and representatives of European companies joined the new industry. The first studio in the Middle East, Aziz and Dorés, was established in Alexandria in 1906 by two photographers, the Turkish Aziz Bandarli and the Italian Umberto Malfasi Dorés. Their first film, shot in 1907, documented a visit by Khedive Abbas Helmi II to inaugurate an educational institute in the Morsi Abul-Abbas Mosque. The film was screened in the same year after they opened their first film theatre in Alexandria, Cinemaphone Aziz and Dorés.
Some critics believe this film should be seen as the first Egyptian film, but others – even though the concept of nationality did not yet exist – feel that only a film made by Egyptians is worthy of the title. Among the famous production companies in Europe who thought Egypt had great potential in the field was the French company Pathé Frères who, in 1908, opened a film theatre in Cairo. By 1911 there were about 11 cinemas spread across most Egyptian cities, and after ten years that number rose to 50.
In the first few years of the film industry, whether internationally or in Egypt, most productions were documentaries. The first couple of attempts to make narrative films in Egypt were flops. In 1918, Mohamed Karim (who was to become a famous filmmaker and the first dean of the Egyptian Institute of Cinema in 1959), became the first Egyptian actor to appear in a film, Charaf El-Badawi (The Honour of the Bedouin), filmed in the Hadra studio in Alexandria. In the same year he also acted in the The Deadly Flowers, but the latter was banned by the censors because it included a scene in which the Holy Quran was upside down. In 1919 an Italian filmmaker, Leonard Ricci, directed Madame Loretta starring the Alexandrian actor Fawzi El-Gazayerli (later famous for his comedic alter ego Mr Bahbah).
These first films were shorter than an hour, and they were directed by non-Egyptian filmmakers. One of the few first narrative films directed by Egyptians was Mohamed Bayoumi’s Barsoum Yabhath Aan Wazifa (Barsoum Looking for a Job) in 1923. It stars Beshara Wakim (who later became a famous screen and stage comedian, dying in 1949) as sheikh Metwalli, and Adel Hamid as Barsoum. The silent comedy, a short film (15 minutes) illustrates the poverty and the hardship of the unemployed among young middle class Egyptians, and includes images of the 1919 Revolution and the Muslim-Christian solidarity it involved.
Bayoumi was born in Tanta in 1894. In his youth he was interested in art and photography, but he joined the Military School and graduated as an artillery officer in 1915. In 1919 he was made a reservist as punishment for being involved in the nationalist movement. During the revolution, he wrote poems and issued a magazine called The Scissors agitating against the British occupation. After the revolution, along with Wakim – a close friend – Bayoumi founded a theatrical troupe called Valley of the Nile (Wadi Al-Nil), which started its performances on 22 July 1919 in Alexandria.
Later, he travelled to Italy and Austria to study cinematography, and continued his studies in Germany where he worked as an assistant cinematographer. He said in an interview in Al-Kawakeb magazine in 1951 that he worked in Berlin in cinema, mentioning that Germans were fascinated by Egyptian cigarettes at that time. It was those cigarettes that made him friends with German director Wilhelm Carol who made him an intern at Diva Studios. They also helped him to befriend the German photographer Boehringer who asked him to become his assistant.
Bayoumi returned to Egypt in 1921, establishing the first cinematic newsreel called Amoun, to cover important events in Egyptian society such as: the return of Saad Zaghloul and his colleagues from their exile in Seychelles in 1923, the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1924, and the Funeral of Saad Zaghloul in 1924.
In 1925, while shooting a documentary on the construction of the new building of Banque Misr, Bayoumi convinced Talaat Harb to establish a cinema department affiliated with the Misr Advertising Company. The founding of Misr Acting and Cinema took place in the same year and Harb appointed Bayoumi as its director. They travelled to Austria in order to purchase equipment for the new company. After accomplishing their mission, Bayoumi decided not to return to Egypt with Harb and stay in Austria for a while, to receive training under the supervision of the expert Leopold Swoboda. He was awarded a certificate from the Central Cinema Centre in Vienna. After this trip it seems that the relationship between Bayoumi and Harb deteriorated as Harb did not acknowledge Bayoumi’s effort in establishing the Misr Acting and Cinema Company and as a result the latter resigned after a couple of months.
In 1932, Bayoumi founded the first Egyptian cinema institute, the Egyptian Cinematographic Institute in Alexandria, and managed with his students to make his second narrative film Al-Khatib Nimrah Talatach (Fiancé Number 13) in 1933. He continued working as a cinematographer and actor in several films, but in 1937 returned to the army following a royal order from King Farouk, only to resign after a few years. In 1948 Bayoumi joined the fighters against the Zionist militias in Palestine. In 1956 he returned to Austria to study colour cinematography, and when he returned to Egypt he joined the resistance against the Tripartite Aggression during the Suez War.
The first attempts at creating Egyptian films has been a subject of debate among critics and film historians since the last quarter of the 20th century, especially the question of the first long narrative film. In 1927, two films were produced and screened. The first, Qobla Fil-Sahara (A Kiss in the Desert) produced and directed by Badr and Ibrahim Lama (the Lama Brothers), and the second, Layla, was directed by Turkish-Egyptian filmmaker Wedad Orfi (Vedat Örfi), and starred by the first actress in Egyptian cinema, Aziza Amir. Amir, who was also the producer of the film, disagreed with Orfi, which made the latter leave the location, then Amir asked Stephan Rosti to complete the film as a director.
In the end the film was screened before Lama’s film, and that is why most historians count Layla as the first long narrative Egyptian film. The birth of the Egyptian film industry remains an interesting question, but the truth is that it was a cumulative pile of events and experiments that lead to the formation of one of the most prominent arts that formed Arab consciousness throughout the 20th century. No one can deny Bayoumi’s vital role in the field.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 July, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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