Born on 25 January 1926, in Alexandria, Egypt. The son of a lawyer, he was brought up in Alexandria. After a year at the city's university, he spent two years in the USA as a trainee at the Pasadena Playhouse. He returned to Egypt in 1948. He directed his first film, Baba Amin, in 1950. Since then, he has become one of Egypt's most admired filmmakers and has won many awards. His international reputation was established with Central Station (1958). Although during the early 60s he directed some epics such as Saladin, increasingly his cinema became more personal. In the mid-60s he spent almost two years in voluntary exile in the Lebanon after a series of quarrels with Egypt's film administration. The first part of his trilogy, Alexandria, Why? (1978), winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, caused great controversy when first released. In his latest films he brought his country’s problems to the silver screen.