Carioca

Go to

Comments

Carioca

Original Title: Carioca
Director: Nabiha Lotfy
Egypt | Arabic
2009 | 60min. | Colour
Subtitles: English
Format: Digital Betacam
All AgesA cinematic tribute to Tahia Carioca has been long overdue, particularly since her death in 1999, so for veteran documentary filmmaker Nabiha Lotfy to take up the challenge is a rare treat. Carioca's life is the stuff of modern myth and fiction. Wrongly described as the "Arab world's Marilyn Monroe," Carioca was not only a pioneering dancer and actress who gave the craft dignity and legitimacy, she was also a rebel and a militant, fearless in her defiance of injustice, patriarchy, and colonialism - especially with the question of Palestine. Carioca is remembered as a quintessentially free spirit, a woman with the rare power to inflame at once hearts and minds, to charm as well as inspire. Her admirers include the late militant Mahmud Amin el-'Alem, as well as artist Adel Siwi, author Sonallah Ibrahim, theorist Galal Amin, and filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah - all of whom appear in this film.

---Rasha Salti

Director, Nabiha Lotfy

Born in 1937, Nabiha Lotfy received her arts degree in 1957 from Cairo University and then graduated from Cairo’s Higher Institute of Cinema in 1964. A producer of more than a dozen documentaries and a champion of the Egyptian New Wave, she also was instrumental in the creation of the Association of Egyptian Women Filmmakers, which was formed in 1990. With nearly 50 feature films on her resumé, including Prayer in Old Cairo (1971) and Mohamed Ali Street (1989), Lotfi is one of the most prolific female directors in Egyptian film history.

Cast and Crew

Cast: Mahmud Amin El Alem, Adel Siwi, Sonallah Ibrahim, Galal Amin, Yousry Nasrallah
Producer: Sunny Land Film
Editor: Ahmed El Kassas, Mohamed Fawzy, Zaki Aref