“My Name is Paula” is not just a biography of a movie star.. Nadia Lutfi’s struggle, resistance and heroic stances

Nahdet Misr recently published the book “My Name is Paula” written by Ayman Al-Hakim, which is a biography of the famous Egyptian movie star “Nadia Lotfi”. In reader groups on social media, as if the star weren’t from previous generations, her work only reached most readers on TV in reruns.

Extraordinary woman

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Nadia

Lotfi lived a very rich life, none of her stages was normal for an Egyptian woman of her age, even the name that was carried in her birth certificate was strange, as her father, Mr. Muhammad Shafiq, called her “Paula” after the nun who helped in her difficult birth, to bear a name that made her not It can be categorized into one religion easily. In her teens, her close friend was “Enayat El-Zayat”, who later grew up and became a writer, and she has a famous novel at the present time, “Love and Silence”, which influenced Paula’s cultural life early, and even her relatively early marriage made her acquaintance with Ramses Naguib, the film producer. , who saw in her a latent talent and produced her first films.

And her life suddenly takes a turn from a young aristocratic mother to a major movie star, and that was only the beginning; Nadia was not satisfied with cinema, art and culture, but had social interests and famous political stances. After the war of October 6, 1973, she transferred her life to Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital, to volunteer to work in caring for the wounded and injured, and not only gave her time and effort, but also used her knowledge And its influence in facilitating the work of doctors, and keenness to provide the best possible care for patients and their relatives.

During the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and in an attempt to support the resistance; She traveled secretly there, and joined the resistance to support them emotionally and psychologically, and lived in difficult circumstances and under the threat of death before returning to Egypt, and in her old age she remained a follower of the Arab political movement, and the late President Yasser Arafat visited her in her home to honor her, among many other honors she received during her career. representation and then. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VrzPuPIosro?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=ar&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Testimony to the era

Nadia Lutfi’s book “My Name is Paula” is not just a biography or memoir of a movie star, but rather a testimony to an entire era, from her childhood until her death, as she began her career in the second half of the fifties after the 1952 revolution, and got acquainted with the most important stars and intellectuals of her generation and the previous and following generations. .

The book has already been divided into several parts, including cinema, culture, or politics, and each part contains different chapters, dedicated to famous flags and names I got to know, and their memories with these personalities. Nadia Lutfi looked at herself in her.

By virtue of her work in Egyptian cinema during her golden age, Nadia got to know her most important stars, of course, from Rushdi Abaza to Omar Sharif and Kamal El-Shennawy, and during her film career she presented a large number of films based on literary works, which was the beginning of her relationship with the most important writers and writers of Egypt, such as Tawfiq al-Hakim, Youssef al-Sibai and Ihsan Abdul Quddus, then the friendship between them and all these important personalities was established.

It is also possible to follow the differences that occurred in the art of cinema over the years of Nadia Lutfi’s work since the fifties, specifically in 1958 in the movie “Sultan” until her last movie “The Legitimate Father” in 1988, that is, 30 years during which she worked with the most important directors, whether they were veterans or Young people, and developed a great experience, and most importantly clear and accurate opinions about what cinema was and became, until the beginning of its cessation of acting permanently.

For example, and contrary to what is popular, Nadia Lutfi did not attack the producer “Ahmed al-Sabki”, but praised his role in preserving cinema, even if it was for purely commercial purposes, in light of the decline in capital and the lack of risk in an important cultural industry, but its results are not always Guaranteed.

With her long experience, and even without any critical study, Nadia Lutfi was able in her book to show the differences in the methods of the directors she worked with, their distinctive marks, and their cinematic language, and how each of them was able to highlight a part of her talent.

In the end, Nadia Lutfi lived a busy life, whether technically, politically or socially, and this is what she highlighted in her book. She did not care about providing any details related to her emotional or marital life, and she did not mention details about her son and her ex-husband except in passing. He cares about gossip or celebrity scandals, but it is a testament to a previous era in the words of one of his most important figures.