ABSTRACT
Several months after the Lumiere brother’s first film projection in France, in 1895, the cinema made its first appearance in Tunisia and Egypt: film as a transnational phenomenon that embraced Africa became an immediate reality. When presenting Ain El Ghezal to the audience, the movie introduces a political angle as her father is cast as a powerful man through the first intertitle: 'Ain-el-Ghezal, the daughter of Caid, leader of the country'. A reference to Islam and to praying is introduced in the first scene where Ain El Ghezal and Taleb are presented together. Zohra might be considered the first African movie and it tells the story of a young French girl shipwrecked on the North African coast of Tunisia. The first film including an all-Egyptian cast was Leila, ironically directed by another Italian Stephan Rosti in 1927, and produced by and starring Aziza Amir. The film was shot in the Sakkara desert under the blistering Egyptian sun.
