This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
Ahlam al-zabbalin = Garbage dreams. 2009, 1 videodisc (79 min.). "Follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people". Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community"-- www.garbagedreams.com. EGYPT. DVD 7149
Al abwab al moghlaka = Closed doors. 1999, 1 videodisc (109 min.). Mohamad, a highly impressionable young man who embraces fundamentalist ideas as a way of dealing with the confusion of adolescence and sexual awakening. EGYPT. DVD 372
Al-mohager = The emigrant. 1994, 1 videodisc (123 min.). Ram is an intellectual who dreams of leaving his family's nomadic life to study agriculture in Egpyt, but his jealous and abusive older brothers sell him into slavery. Ram manages to overcome his hardships and win the admiration of royalty, though his change of fortune carries a high price. EGYPT. DVD 5623
Banat al-yawm. 1957, 1 videodisc (115 min.). Egyptian cinema classics. Two sisters, Salwá and Laylá, meet two friends Fathi (Ramzi) and Khalid (Hafiz). Fathi really likes Salwá, but Salwá falls in love with Khalid. Khalid, on the other hand, respects that his friend likes Salwá and ignores his feelings for her. Believing that Laylá is similar to her sister, Khalid proposes to marry her instead. Fathi tried to forget his love for Salwá by having an affair with Laylá's divorced friend. Khalid realizes that there are too many differences between himself and Laylá, and he discovers that he truly loves Salwá. EGYPT. DVD 11129
Bikur ha-Tizmoret = The band's visit. 2007, 1 videodisc (87 min.). The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event. Once there, they find the expected delegation is not there to meet them. Arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva have not been taken care of either. They find their own ride and arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning's bus, the band, lead by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in the best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. EGYPT. DVD 2755
Bāb Al-Ḥadīd = Cairo: Central Station. 1958, 1 videodisc, 1 online resource (1 video file (1 hr. 16 min. 47 sec.)). Kinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed by Hannouma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she treats Kinawi in a sympathetic way and jokes with him about a possible relationship, She is actually in love with Abu Sri', a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment. EGYPT. DVD 7847 and Streaming video.
Doa al karawan = The nightingale's prayer. 1959, 1 videdisc (126 min.). "This compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor. [The Nightingale's Prayer is] a gripping portrait of a courageous young woman's rebellion against tradition and poverty"--Container. EGYPT. DVD 5619
Et maintenant, on va où? = W halla' la wayn. 2012, 1 videodisc (102 min.). A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village. EGYPT. FRANCE. DVD 7116
Fallen angels paradise. 1999, 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 80 min.). A homeless man dies of an overdose in a popular Cairo neighborhood. He was once an ideal husband and represented security for his family. Then one day, everything changed. Upon his death his friends from the underworld drag the corpse around for a whole night of madness, drinking and hallucinating situations. Based on Jorge Amado novel. EGYPT. Streaming video.
Four women of Egypt. 1997, 1 videodisc (90 min.). Four Egyptian women have the same goals--human diginity and social justice--but each adopts an approach radically different from the others. Muslim, Christian, Jewish or non-religious, their visions of society range from wanting a secular or socialist state to an Islamic one. These friends, deeply committed, argue openly, without ever breaking the bond that unites them. EGYPT. DVD 7764 and Streaming video.
Ghazal al-banat. 1949, 1 videodisc (120 min.). Musical comedy about a frivolous young rich girl falling in and out of love. EGYPT. DVD 13310
Goodbye Mubarak! 2011, 1 videodisc (72 min.). "On January 25, 2011, the world was captivated as thousands of protesters flooded Tahrir Square in Cairo, demanding an end to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. But the ground for the protests had been laid in the weeks and months preceding the mass outpouring of opposition. Goodbye Mubarak! takes us to Egypt during the fall of 2010, in the run-up to legislative elections. What we discover is a revolution-in-waiting already simmering under the surface of Egyptian society." – Container. EGYPT. DVD 10044 and Streaming video.
ha-Bayit bi-Rehov Shelush. 2004, 1 videodisc (110 min.). A coming-of-age story set in pre-Israel Palestine, the plot centers on the firstborn son of a widowed wife who emigrated from Egypt with her four children. Sammy transitions from a shy 15-year old to a working man and an activist in the "Haganah", and develops a romantic attachment with a 25-year old Russian immigrant librarian. The movie is a vivid description of Egyptian-Jewish families on the eve of the declaration of the state of Israel. EGYPT. DVD 6705
Hadduta misrija = An Egyptian story. 1982, 1 videodisc (127 min.). Alexandria trilogy. In the middle of his own heart surgery, an Egyptian filmmaker remembers his life. In fact his old self, as a child, is accused of attempted murder of his new self. Through the metaphoric trial, we are drawn into his life in relation with the Egyptian revolution, his constant need for success, and the effect the American Dream has on him. EGYPT. DVD 463
Iskanderija, kaman oue Kaman = Alexandria again and forever. 1989, 1 videodisc (105 min.). Alexandria trilogy. In this autobiographical film, Yehia, the director's alter ego, joins a hunger strike which has rallied the Egyptian film industry. As the strike goes on, Yehia is overwhelmed by his infatuation with the young actor Amr, but this infatuation is soon overshadowed by his interest in Nadia, the young actress he wants to cast in his next feature. The last film in the director's Alexandria trilogy. EGYPT. DVD 464
La Vierge, les Coptes, et moi-- = The Virgin, the Copts, and me. 2011, 1 streaming video file (85 min.). A filmmaker's revealing, sometimes comedic personal exploration of Egypt's Copt community. EGYPT / FRANCE / QATAR. Streaming video.
Mawlid ya dunya = Life is a carnival. 1975, 1 videodisc (150 min.). A theater director attempts to help a group of homeless people by forming a musical theater troupe. EGYPT. DVD 11135.
My father is on the tree. 2003, 1 videodisc (155 min.). "Adel, a college student majoring in engineering, goes from his home in Cairo to Alexandria to spend a 2-week summer vacation with his friends. While there, he courts his sweetheart Aamal, but she refuses to yield to his requests to spend time alone together. Frustrated, he embarks on an affair with a dancer named Ferdous, and spirals downward into a world of alcohol, gambling, and deception. His friends learn of this, and distance themselves from him. When word gets back to his father Hamid who comes to bring him home, Adel realizes what he must do." --IMDB. EGYPT. DVD 13351.
Omaret yakobean = Yacoubian building. 2006, 1 videodisc (162 min.). We meet the residents of the Yacoubian building and through them learn something about the city of Cairo, albeit the more disturbing side of corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, sexuality, and drugs. EGYPT. DVD 3279
Salamah fi khayr = Everything is fine. 1937, 1 videodisc (98 min.). Egyptian cinema classics. Through a series of bizarre coincidences, a clerk (Rihani) changes places with a visiting foreign prince, who wishes to test the true motives of his aides. EGYPT. DVD 13306.
Thartharah fawq al-Nil = Adrift on the Nile. 1971, 1 videodisc (115 min.). Egyptian cinema classics. A group of hedonistic middle-aged friends gather each night on a luxurious houseboat for dancing, love-making and smoking hashish. When a young news reporter visits the houseboat to write a story on the group, she is outraged to learn the tragic depths of their social alienation. EGYPT. DVD 5618.
Tickling giants. 2016. 1 videodisc (120 min.). In the midst of the Egyptian Arab Spring, Bassem Youssef makes a decision that is every mother's worst nightmare and leaves his job as a heart surgeon to become a full-time comedian. Dubbed "The Egyptian Jon Stewart," Bassem creates the satirical show, Al Bernameg. The weekly program quickly becomes the most viewed television program in the Middle East, with 30 million viewers per episode. But, in a country where free speech is not settled law, his show becomes as controversial as it is popular. Despite increasing danger, Bassem employs comedy, not violence, to comment on hypocrisy in media, politics, and religion. Tickling Giants follows the "Al Bernameg" team as they discover democracy is not easily won. EGYPT. DVD 14966.
Winter of Discontent = El sheita elli fat. 2012, 1 videodisc (96 min.). Set in and around the events of January 2011 in Cairo's Tahrir Square whick led to the overthrow of the Mubarak regime. An opposition activist, a TV journalist, and a secret policeman intersect before and during the events. Flashbacks lay bare the previous treatment of opponents of Mubarek, and the film ends with a prescient (as it turns out) ambiguity for the future of the people's struggle. -- from container. EGYPT. DVD 11223.