Lights, Cairo, Action
British photographer Jason Larkin examines Egypt’s cinematic heritage
WORDS | ALEX RAYNER
WHEN THE BRITISH-BORN PHOTOGRAPHER JASON LARKIN MOVED TO CAIRO IN 2007 HE WAS SURPRISED TO FIND HIMSELF IN A HOTBED OF POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT.
“I moved downtown, which is also home to the oldest cinemas in the region,” he tells Voyager. “There are six or seven huge ones close by. I started talking to people involved, and found out Cairo is the centre of the Middle East’s entertainment world.”
Just as English-speaking viewers have Hollywood, and the Indian diaspora looks towards Bollywood, so Cairo’s production houses have made about half the world’s 6,000-plus Arabic movies. As Larkin learnt, while working on this compelling photo essay, the Golden Age of Egyptian cinema falls just after Hollywood’s gilded era. In the same way as nostalgic western cinephiles love classics like Citizen Kane (1941) and Gone with the Wind (1939), so Egyptian film buffs adore Afrita Hanem (The Genie Lady, 1949) and Bab el Hadid (Cairo Station, 1958).
Back in the 1940s and ’50s, powerful recording companies used movies to push their Egyptian singers, drawing huge crowds to the theatres. A change of political climate led to a drop in cinematic output during the latter half of the 20th century; Larkin believes the low point came in 1997, when only 17 Egyptian films were produced.
However, as he began to contact production houses, he discovered that Cairo’s movie-makers have seen a welcome reversal of fortune in recent years, largely thanks to an influx of cash from the Gulf states.
Although this revival has resulted in quite a few conservative features – such as 2008’s Tabakh el-Rayes (The President’s Chef) – having gained access to countless closed sets, Jason discovered there’s still room for more challenging works, such the finely calibrated city drama Omaret Yakobean (The Yacoubian Building, 2006) and the realistic romantic drama Kobolat Masrouka (Stolen Kisses, 2008). What’s more, film fans from Casablanca through to Qatar are picking up the latest Egyptian street slang, thanks to Cairo’s screen stars. www.jasonlarkin.co.uk
