When Cinema Becomes Memory: How a 1952 Egyptian Film Captures the Complexity of Arab-Jewish Relations
A rediscovered Egyptian film featuring a Jewish factory owner gifting his business to an Egyptian worker reveals how popular culture once portrayed interfaith relationships that today’s polarized Middle East struggles to imagine.
A Window Into Egypt’s Cosmopolitan Past
“Luebat al-Sitt” (The Lady’s Puppet), released in 1952 and starring cinema legends Naguib El-Rihani and Taheyya Carioca, offers a remarkable snapshot of Egypt’s pre-revolutionary society. The film’s plot—centered on a Jewish industrialist who transfers ownership of his factory to an Egyptian employee before departing the country—reflects a historical reality that has largely vanished from contemporary Middle Eastern narratives. During this era, Egypt’s Jewish community numbered around 80,000 people and played significant roles in the country’s economic and cultural life, from the Cicurel department stores to the film studios of Togo Mizrahi.
The Politics of Departure and Memory
The film’s storyline gains additional poignancy when viewed against the backdrop of the mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries in the 1950s and 1960s. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1952 Free Officers Revolution, Egypt’s Jewish population faced increasing pressure, discriminatory laws, and outright expulsion. By 1970, fewer than 1,000 Jews remained in Egypt. The cinematic portrayal of a voluntary transfer of property—framed as a gift rather than confiscation—presents a sanitized version of what was often a traumatic displacement. Yet the film’s very existence suggests that Egyptian audiences of the time could still conceive of Jews as integral members of society, even as political winds were shifting dramatically.
The renewed attention to this film on social media platforms reflects a growing interest among younger Middle Eastern audiences in recovering suppressed histories. Digital archivists and cultural commentators are increasingly excavating examples of Arab-Jewish coexistence from the pre-1948 era, challenging monolithic narratives on both sides of the current conflict. These cultural artifacts serve as evidence of a more complex past, where identity categories were more fluid and interfaith business partnerships were unremarkable rather than unthinkable.
Cinema as Counter-Narrative
The film industry itself exemplified this cosmopolitan ethos. Egyptian cinema’s golden age featured numerous Jewish actors, directors, and producers who helped create what would become the Hollywood of the Arab world. Leila Mourad, one of Egypt’s most beloved singers and actresses, came from a Jewish family, though she later converted to Islam. The collaborative nature of Egyptian filmmaking in this period—bringing together Muslims, Christians, and Jews—stands in stark contrast to the cultural segregation that characterizes much of the contemporary Middle East.
What makes “Luebat al-Sitt” particularly significant is not its historical accuracy but its emotional register. By depicting the Jewish factory owner sympathetically and the transfer of property as an act of goodwill, the film preserves a moment when such portrayals were commercially viable and socially acceptable. This challenges both Arab nationalism’s later erasure of Jewish contributions and Zionist narratives that painted all Arab countries as uniformly hostile to Jews throughout history.
As contemporary Middle Eastern societies grapple with questions of diversity, belonging, and historical memory, films like “Luebat al-Sitt” offer more than nostalgia. They provide evidence of alternative possibilities, reminding us that current political arrangements are not inevitable. If popular culture could once imagine and celebrate Arab-Jewish cooperation, what would it take to rebuild such imaginative capacity today?
