Arts, Theater and Film

The first modern Arabic plays were performed in Cairo in the 1870s. Leading 20th-century dramatists include Mahmud Taymur, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yusuf Idris, and Nu`man`Ashur. Egypt has been the center of film production in the Arab world since the 1930s. The best-known director, Youssef Chahine, made his reputation in the 1950s and 1960s with nationalist works of social realism such as Bab al-Hadid (1958, also released as Central Station and Gare centrale) and Al-Ard (1969, The Land).