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Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama: Egyptian Cinema’s Iconic Love Story

December 24, 2018

  She was the lady of the Arab screen – a woman with charm, sophistication, and elegance, captivating the audience with her sweet voice and raw emotions. He, on the other hand, was a global nomad – living a very mobile and international lifestyle that eventually dragged him into the miseries of loneliness. For Michel Chalhoub, or better known as Omar Sharif, Faten Hamama symbolized not only love, but belonging. She came from his own homeland, Egypt, born into a Muslim lower middle class family in Mansoura while he was from a wealthy, Catholic background in Alexandria. Later on, Hamama became the famous Egyptian actress that helped start his career in 1954, after Youssef Chahine offered him a role opposite the popular actress in the film “Struggle in the Valley” on the condition that she approves him for the part. Out of nervousness upon meeting her, Chalhoub began reciting Shakespeare’s famous lines in Hamlet, “to be or not to be…,” which pleased Hamama, and he got the role.  After sharing her very first on-screen kiss with Chalhoub, the magical love story in the film spilled into their real lives, as he later agreed to convert…


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