Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema

by Deborah A. Starr

Overview

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

In this book, Deborah A. Starr recuperates the work of Togo Mizrahi, a pioneer of Egyptian cinema. Mizrahi, an Egyptian Jew with Italian nationality, established himself as a prolific director of popular comedies and musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. As a studio owner and producer, Mizrahi promoted the idea that developing a local cinema industry was a project of national importance. Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema integrates film analysis with film history to tease out the cultural and political implications of Mizrahi’s work. His movies, Starr argues, subvert dominant notions of race, gender, and nationality through their playful—and queer—use of masquerade and mistaken identity. Taken together, Mizrahi’s films offer a hopeful vision of a pluralist Egypt. By reevaluating Mizrahi’s contributions to Egyptian culture, Starr challenges readers to reconsider the debates over who is Egyptian and what constitutes national cinema.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520366206
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Series:	University of California Series in Jewish History and Cultures , #1
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Deborah A. Starr is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt: Literature, Culture, and Empire and coeditor of Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Notes on Translation and Transliteration xvii

1 Togo Mizrahi, Agent of Exchange 1

Preview 1

Egyptian Jews: Between Nationality and Nationalisms 5

What Is Egyptian Cinema? 10

National Cinema without Nationality 12

Togo Mizrahi: A Case Study of National Cinema without Nationality 20

2 Togo Mizrahi, Work over Words 27

Togo Mizrahi, a Jewish Son of Egypt 28

The Making of the "Togo Cinema Family": Alexandria, 1929-1939 30

"The Director Who Does the Egyptian Film Industry Proud": Cairo, 1939-1946 39

From Director to Producer: Cairo, 1944-1946 43

The End of Studio Togo Mizrahi 44

Reevaluating Togo Mizrahi's Legacy 49

3 Crimes of Mistaken Identity 50

The Subversive Potential of Levantine Farce 51

Chalom: A Jewish Ibn al-Balad 56

Language of Belonging, Language of Disguise: The Two Delegates (1934) 58

Masquerade and the Levantine Carnivalesque: The Neighborhood Watchman (1936) 64

Coda: Levantine Masquerade and Subversive Sexuality 70

4 Queering the Levantine 73

In Bed Together 73

Queerness and the Levantine 74

Suitors in Swimsuits: Doctor Farahat (1935) 75

A Parting Kiss: Mistreated by Affluence (1937) 83

Coda: "The Story of a Woman Who Was Transformed into a Man" 88

5 Journeys of Assumed Identity: Seven O'Clock (1937) 91

Movement I Cycling in Alexandria 93

Movement II Nubian Whiteface and Borscht Belt Minstrelsy 96

Movement III Queer Levantine Mobility 102

Coda: Journey of the Living Dead 105

6 Traveling Anxieties 107

Itinerary I, Egypt-Italy: A Rainy Night (1939) 109

Itinerary II, Egypt-Sudan: A Rainy Night (1939) 112

Itinerary III, Egypt-Palestine-Lebanon: The Straight Road (1943) 117

Coda: Layla, Bint al-Balad 122

7 Courtesan and Concubine 125

Love Matches and Marriage Plots 125

Abolition of Slavery and Legal Prostitution in Egypt 127

Courtesan/Queen: Layla (1942) 130

A Modern Qayna: Sallama (1945) 141

A Success Rumored to Be a Failure 155

8 Frames of Influence 158

Frame 1 Hasan and Marika (Egypt, 1959) 160

Frame 2 Cinema Egypt (Israel, 1998) 161

Frame 3 Passion (Syria, 2005) 163

Frame 4 YouTube 164

Writing Togo Mizrahi into the History of Egyptian Cinema 166

Appendix: Togo Mizrahi Filmography 169

Notes 179

Works Cited 211

Index 225

Editorial Reviews

"Offers a complex and subtle analysis of a neglected and important figure—and suggests new ways of thinking about Muslim-Jewish interactions."

Markaz Review

"The cinema of Togo Mizrahi is a vital contribution not only to Arab cinema but to the understanding of a region whose heterogeneity is methodically ignored."

New Arab

"In her detailed examination of Mizrahi’s oeuvre, Starr contributes to our understanding of the Egyptian movie industry and the role of Jews in its development. Of special emphasis is the treatment of indigenous people holding foreign citizenship in this process. The study is also of importance to women and gender studies, examining queerness and the role of both Jewish and Muslim women in the entertainment industry."

Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

"Starr wonderfully recaptures a pre-1948 Egypt in which Jews enjoyed a level of coexistence with their Arab neighbors."

Sephardic Horizons

"Deborah A. Starr’s study of the pioneering Jewish-Egyptian film-maker Togo Mizrahi has arrived at a good time. . . . wherever this goes in the future, Togo Mizrahi’s Levantine dreams look very appealing from where we are now."

Times Literary Supplement

"“Starr’s book recuperates this cinematic history through its welcome account of the pluralistic, hugely entertaining, and popular cinema of Mizrahi and, by extension, by making a case for why Mizrahi and other Alexandrians––Jewish, Greek, Italian, or otherwise––of his era were every bit as Egyptian as their citizen compatriots. . . . Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for film scholars and students of early cinema in Egypt and for its contribution to thinking of cinema outside national histories."

Critical Inquiry