To mark the centennial of Egyptian cinema, Al Ahram daily newspaper asked the country’s top 20 critics to choose the best 15 best Egyptian films of all time. This is the result of the poll:
1. Al-Mummia (The Night of Counting the Years) Directed by Chadi Abdel Salam (1975)
2. El-Haram (The Sin)Directed by Henry Barakat (1965)
3. Al-Ard (The Land).Directed by Youssef Chahine (1970)
4. Bidaya wa Nihaya (A Beginning and an End)Directed by Salah Abouseif (1960)
5. Sawaq El-Autobis (The Bus Driver) Directed by Atef E-Taieb (1983)
6. El Tooq wal Eswera (The Collar and the Bracelet)Directed by Khairy Beshara (1986)
7. Al-Azima (The Will)Directed by Kamal Selim (1939)
8. Bab El-Hadid (Cairo Station)Directed by Youssef Chahine (1958)
9. Zawgat Ragol Mohim (The Wife of an Important Man)Directed by Mohamed Khan (1988)
10. Ghazal Al-Banat (The Flirtation of Girls) Directed by Anwar Wagdi (1949)
11. Haya aw Maut (Life or Death)Directed by Kamal El Sheikh (1954)
12. Doaa Al-Karawan (The Nightingale’s Cry)Directed by Henry Barakat (1959)
13. El-Baree (The Innocent)Directed by Atef E-Taieb
14. El-Kit KatDirected by Daoud Abdel Sayed. (1991)
15. Al-Irhab wal kabab (Terrorism and the Kebab)Directed by Sherif Arafa (1992)
