Saturday, January 18, 2014

Salama [سلامة] (Om Kolsum) - (1945)

Salama [سلامه] (1945) - (Om Kolsum) Egyptian stone litho film poster

This is an original 24" x 35.5" Egyptian stone lithograph poster designed by an unknown artist to promote the 1945 Togo Mizrahi 100-minute black-and-white film Salama [سلامه] starring Om Kolthum based on a story by Ali Ahmed Bakathir with dialogue and songs by Bayramn El Tounsi and cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: This film is a musical melodrama showcasing the singing of Om Kolsum. As the film begins Salama [Om Kolsum] is shown passing in silence without returning a greeting from a man sitting with a group of friends. When asked why Salama did not return his greeting, the man tells her story. Salama once lived with her companion Shawq as a maid in the home of Sheikh Abu Wafa. She had a beautiful voice and developed songs during the day and sang them at night, until Sheikh Abu Wafa got tired of her songs and sold her and Shawq on the maid market. She was bought by a libertine named ibn Soheir who commercialized the voice of his new maid. Salama met and fell in love with a pious man named Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Qos [Yehia Chahine] who was ridiculed for his love of a maid by the other Arabs. When ibn Soheir went bankrupt and sold his maids and all his property, Abdel Rahman came forward to buy her and marry her, but found that she had been summoned to the caliph's palace and had then fled the palace. Abdel Rahman looked for her and became ill; Salama came looking for him, only to find him just as he was breathing his last. The scene returns to Salama, her silence and the man relating the events of her life.

Soon after this film's release director Togo Mizrahi was accused of Zionism and forced out of Egypt. He died in exile in Italy. A brief biography is at cineplot here.



Watch on YouTube

Cast and crew: Om Kolsum, Yehia Chahine, Togo Mizrahi, Zouzou Nabil, Fouad Shafik, Abdel Waress Assar, Abdelhalim Nasr, Fakher Fakher, Stephan Rosti, Ali Ahmed Bakathir, Bayram El Tounsi, Yehia Chahine, Soad Zaki, Sharafnath, Ister Shatta, Mohamed Kamel, Rafia al-Baroudi, Abdel Qader al-Masiri



Visit the Movie Poster Page!


No comments: