Salah Zulfikar Films Company (, aka: Salah Zulfikar Films) is a film production company established in 1962 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It operated in the Middle East and North Africa since 1962 until 1978.

Establishment

Salah Zulfikar Films Company was established by

Salah Zulfikar Salah El-Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar (, ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a Egyptian National Police, police officer, before becoming an actor in 1956. He is regarded as one o ...

(1926–1993), It was created to produce feature films. Their goal was to focus on film sales, but as the founder stated in a 1969 television interview, aired on Channel 1 of the Egyptian television "I am a professional cinematic actor, however, I consider film production as my hobby, I produce what I believe".

History

Their goal was to focus on film sales, with their first venture being Ezz El-Dine Zulficar's '' A Date at the Tower'' (1962), signing

Soad Hosny Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny (, ; 26 January 1943 – 21 June 2001) was an Egyptian actress. She was known as the "Cinderella of the Screen" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She is generally regarded a ...

; the rising female movie star at the time opposite Salah Zulfikar. The film made high numbers and was a financial success for the newly born company. Zulfikar succeeded to sign with

Farid Shawqi Farid Shawqi Mohammad Abdou Shawqi () (July 30, 1920 in El Sayyeda Zainab – July 27, 1998 in Maadi); known as Farid Shawqi () was an Egyptian actor, screenwriter and film producer. He acted in 351 films, 27 plays and 17 television series; wr ...

who was a bankable star in the 50s and 60s to star in their second film; ''I’m the Fugitive'' (1962) and it was a box office hit. Followed by another box office hit; ''A Letter from Unknown Woman'' (1962) with

Farid al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash (; October 19, 1910 – December 26, 1974), also spelled Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian singer, oudist, composer, and actor. Although born in Syria, he immigrated to Egypt at the age of nine with his mother and siblings, ...

and Lobna Abdel Aziz in the leading roles. With those three films in just the first year of operations, it was considered a great start. Zulfikar, the company's founder who was a famous leading actor himself, had no difficulty in convincing Egypt's movie stars to sign one after another. In 1966, Salah Zulfikar Films produced '' My Wife, the Director General'' (1966). The film did justice to the main female character and allowed her to be a director over men. It was a huge commercial and critical success for Zulfikar himself as the lead actor and the film production company's owner. Three years later, the company produced '' A Taste of Fear'' (1969), starring

Shadia Fatma Ahmad Kamal Shaker (; 8 February 193128 November 2017), better known by her stage name Shadia (, ''Shādya''), was an Egyptian actress and singer. She was famous for her roles in light comedies and Drama (film and television), drama in th ...

, who was Zulfikar's wife at the time. It was one of the highest grossing films of the year and the film was a masterpiece and became an Egyptian cinematic classic. After producing films in Syria and Lebanon, the company produced ''

I Want a Solution ''I Want a Solution'' (, Transliteration, translit.Oridu hallan) is a 1975 Egyptian drama film directed by Said Marzouk and produced by Salah Zulfikar. The film was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language F ...

'' (1975), an award winning film starring

Faten Hamama Faten Ahmed Hamama (, ; 27 May 1931 – 17 January 2015) was an Egyptian film and television actress and film producer. She made her screen debut in 1939, when she was only seven years old. Her earliest roles were minor, but her activity an ...

and

Rushdy Abaza Rushdy Saiid Bughdadi Abaza () (3 August 1926 – 27 July 1980) was an Egyptian film and television actor. He was considered one of the most charming actors in the Egyptian film industry and is one of the most famous. He died of brain cancer at t ...

, grossing numbers in the Arab world. The film contributed in changing the personal status law in Egypt at the time in favor of women. The company operated for almost 16 years with a film production portfolio of 10 films and two TV shorts through the 1960s and 1970s. Due to major alteration in

Egyptian Cinema The Egyptian film industry is today based mainly in Cairo, which is sometimes referred to as Hollywood on the Nile, Hollywood of the Middle East or Hollywood of the East, despite having its beginnings in the city of Alexandria in the early 20t ...

starting from mid 1970s, Zulfikar stated that he's considering retirement from the film production career and concentrate only on his acting career. Despite the box office success in almost all films produced by Salah Zulfikar Films. The company went defunct in 1978, leaving behind a huge legacy and missing Salah Zulfikar's dream to produce a

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

showing Egyptian patriotic and heroic roles towards his country. In 1996, for the centenary of

Egyptian cinema The Egyptian film industry is today based mainly in Cairo, which is sometimes referred to as Hollywood on the Nile, Hollywood of the Middle East or Hollywood of the East, despite having its beginnings in the city of Alexandria in the early 20t ...

, three Salah Zulfikar films were listed among the top hundred Egyptian films of the 20th century.

Founder

Salah Zulfikar (1926–1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a police officer in the

Egyptian National Police Egyptian National Police or ENP is the national police force of Egypt responsible for law enforcement. It is a department in the Ministry of Interior. National organization The Ministry of Interior divides the functions of the police and public ...

, before becoming an actor in 1956. He is regarded as one of the most influential actors in the history of Egyptian film industry. Zulfikar had roles in more than hundred feature films in multiple genres during a 37-year career, mostly as the

leading actor A leading actor, leading actress, or leading man or lady or simply lead (), plays a main role in a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person w ...

Zulfikar established his first film production corporation with elder brother

Ezz El-Dine Zulficar Ezz El-Dine Ahmed Mourad Zulficar (; 28 October 1919 – 1 July 1963) was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter, actor and producer known for his distinctive style, which blends romance and action. He is widely regarded one of the most influen ...

in 1958. He ran his new business under the trade name of Ezz El-Dine Zulficar Films. In 1962, he founded Salah Zulfikar Films company and operated in Egypt and

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

for almost 16 years. Through Zulfikar's two productions corporations he ran in his 20-year career as a film producer, he won numerous awards and 5 of his productions were listed in the Top 100 Egyptian films of the 20th century.

Films

Feature films

TV shorts

References

{{reflist 1962 establishments in Egypt Film production companies of Egypt Television in Egypt Mass media companies established in 1962 Mass media companies of Egypt