WATANI International
4 September 2011
Kamal al-Shinnawi (1922 – 2011)
“Actor for all seasons” is a title that befits the late, remarkable star Kamal al-Shinnawi. For decades Shinnawi entertained and delighted us with a series of memorable films, which in themselves can constitute a huge archival folder for the history of Egyptian cinematic art.
Shinnwai was able, with rare intelligence and exceptional talent, to play a wide variety of roles on the screen. He was the handsome, irresistible lady-charmer; the hilarious comedian; the journalist struggling for a cause; the cruel criminal; the unmerciful intelligence officer; as well as many other roles which he played quite naturally and without any kind of artifice.
No doubt Shinnwai’s other talents added value to the roles he played. Kamal was a gifted painter who, in his early career as a film actor, held several exhibitions. He had a pleasing singing voice to boot; he joined in duets with leading lady and singer Shadya in a few of their films together. Art—in its many guises—obviously dominated his being.
The romantic lover
It will never be possible to go through the entire folder of Shinnawi’s works, which begins with his first film, the 1947 production of Ghani Harb (War Profiteer) alongside the then screen giants Farid Shawky, Laila Fawzy and Bishara Wakim.
Over a 62-year career, he acted in some 250 film and television productions, and directed one film, Tanabelt al-Sultan (The Sultan’ Jesters), in 1965.
Five of Shinnawi’s films make an appearance in a list compiled by Egyptian cinema critics in 1996 of the hundred greatest Egyptian films: Amir al-Intiqam (Prince of Revenge), Al-Liss wal-Kilaab (The Thief and the Dogs), Al-Mustaheel (The Impossible), Al-Ragul allathi Faqada Thillahu (The Man Who Lost his Shadow) and Karnak.
Shinnawi’s first roles were dominated by the character of the romantic, handsome, earnest, young man who would defy class differences to get the woman he loved, a character that drew legions of female admirers. He found his perfect female match in Shadya, the sparkling beauty with the playful, melodious voice who rose to be in her own right a bright film star. Shinnawi and Shadya played leading roles in more than 30 films, the most successful of which were Fil Hawa Sawa (Together in Love) in 1951 and Al-Hawa Maloosh Dawa (No Cure for Love) in 1952. In the same romantic genre, he stood before Egyptian cinema’s legendary leading lady Faten Hamama in Al-Ustaza Fatma (Miss Fatma), a social comedy that addressed the work of women in the legal profession. Other social comedies followed, the most popular among which were Al-Hamawaat al-Fatinaat (Charming Mothers-in-law) and Nashaala Hanem (Pickpocket Lady)
Memorable roles
Apart from the romantic roles, Shinnawi in 1950 played the fickle friend in Prince of Revenge, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. But he had to wait till the late 1950s to make a clean break with romanticism, playing a supporting role in Al-Gharib, again an adaptation form a western novel, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
In 1959, Shinnawi was cast in the role of the villainous wife-beating, blackmail-wielding thug in another landmark work of Egyptian cinema, Mahmoud Zulfiqar’s Al-Mar’a al-Maghoula (The Unknown Woman). And playing leading lady in front of him was none other than Shadya who had herself made the turnaround from the playful romantic to the more mature roles.
The 1960s saw an almost new Shinnawi, an eminently more mature one. In 1962 he played the opportunistic journalist Raouf Elwan, a Judas-like figure, in The Thief and the Dogs based on Naguib Mahfouz’s classic novel of the same name. He played another opportunistic, social-climbing journalist in The Man Who Lost his Shadow a brazen critique of corrupted post-1967 defeat Egypt based on a Fathy Ghanem novel. But the journalist character gets finally exonerated in Noura, in which Shinnawi is a journalist who struggles for a cause and gets detained for his views.
No other film succeeded in fully capitalising on Shinnawi’s talent like Ali Badrakhan’s 1975 production Al-Karnak, an adaptation of Naguib Mahfouz’s 1971 harrowing novel about Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s secret police State. In one of the greatest screen performances in Egyptian film history, Shinnawi played Khaled Safwan, the sadistic, smooth-talking Head of Egyptian Intelligence who cold-bloodedly ordered the torture of innocent detainees, and who forces students to spy on their peers. Most unnerving about Safwan is that he committed his acts of utmost tyranny with the self-righteous conviction of protecting the revolution.
Maturity
Among Shinnawi’s last memorable film performances was his role of the Interior Minister who has to deal with hijacking the huge governmental administrative building in Tahrir Square, in Sherif Arafa’s 1992 political satire Al-Irhaab wal-Kabaab (Terrorism and Kebab).
He also appeared in international and regional films including Doctor Bil-Afia (Doctor By Force) in Morocco; the Egyptian-Japanese Ala Difaaf al-Nil (On the Bank of the Nile); Al-Badawiya al-Ashiqa (The Lover Bedouin) in Lebanon; Al-Ragul al-Munasib (The Suitable Man) in Syria, Al-Mala’ika (The Angels) in Tunisia.
His TV work includes the remarkable series Hind wal-Doctor Numaan (Hind and Doctor Numaan) and Awlad Hadret al-Nazer (The Sons of the Headmaster).
Born in 1922 in the East Delta town of Mansoura, Mohamed Kamal al-Shinnawi developed a love for music and fine arts at an early age. He earned a degree in Art Education and enrolled in the Academy of Arabic Music. Prior to graduation, he tried his luck with theatre through a number of small productions that did not transpire. His strong stage presence at auditions, however, attracted the attention of several directors and theatre stars.
Shinnawi, who died on 22 August, will always be remembered by Egyptian cinema-goers for his talent, mastery, charisma, and moral elegance. He was married three times and is survived by one son Mohamed, a film director.