Delivered by Intellect to: Short Film Studies Editorial Board (id23206469) IP: 104.32.6.111 On: Sun, 30 Jun 2024 21:30:18 SFS 14 (1) pp. 73–81 Intellect Limited 2024 Short Film Studies Volume 14 Number 1 www.intellectbooks.com 73 © 2024 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/sfs_00112_1 Received 22 July 2023; Accepted 2 February 2024; Published Online June 2024 TAHER ABDEL-GHANI New Giza University MOHAMED W. FAREED University of Sharjah A surrealistic vérité: Chahine’s in-betweenness in his illustration of Cairo ABSTRACT Cairo has been described as a city of dualities, in the sense of its conflict between the traditions of the past and the modern values of the present. The city has witnessed rapid transformations in terms of its sociocultural aspects due to politi- cal, economic and religious changes. In his work, the acclaimed and legendary Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine portrayed such changes in his 1991 short semi-documentary Al-Qahira Munawwara bi Ahlaha (Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine) in surrealistic and flâneurie ways. This article breaks down Chahine’s visual interpretation of Cairo to reveal his sense of in-betweenness as a form of urban surrealism. The film offers fragmented episodes of Cairo that are assembled to reflect Chahine’s imagination and collective memory. In filming Cairo, Chahine transformed his portrait of the city into a self-reflexive illustration of a filmmaker who expresses deep admiration for Cairo and its inhabitants. CHAHINE’S MEGA CITY: THE ISSUE OF REPRESENTATION Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine’s (1991) quasi-fictional/quasi-documentary short film Al-Qahira Munawwara bi Ahlaha (Cairo as Told by Youssef Chahine) KEYWORDS urban space flâneur megacity filmmaker society short film cinematic