Nadia Lutfi
Nadia Lutfi or Nadia Loutfi (Arabic: نادية لطفي); (Arabic: بولا محمد مصطفى شفيق) 3 January 1937 – 4 February 2020) was an Egyptian actress.[1] During her prime, she was one of the most popular actresses of the Egyptian cinema's golden age.
Nadia Lutfi نادية لطفي | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Poula Mohamed Mostafa Shafiq بولا محمد مصطفى شفيق 3 January 1937 |
| Died | 4 February 2020 (aged 83) Cairo, Egypt |
| Other names | Nadia Loutfi |
| Years active | 1958–1993 |
| Spouse(s) | Ibrahim Sadek Mohamed Sabry Adel El Beshary |
| Children | Ahmed Adel El Bashary |
Life and career
Born in Cairo as Poula Mohamed Mostafa Shafiq to an Egyptian father and an Egyptian mother called Fatma.[2][3][4] Lutfi was raised as a devout Muslim.[2][5] Nadia began acting as a hobby; when she was 10 years old she participated in a play at her school and did very well. When the 24-year-old was about to make her screen debut in 1958, Omar Sharif was the reigning king of Egyptian cinema, and his wife, Egyptian superstar Faten Hamama, its queen. The star couple had just had a smash hit with the film La Anam with Hamama as "Nadia Lotfy", a willful teen who destroys her father's marriage. Poula adopted the forename and a variation of the surname of the character as her own.
With her fresh new name, the young actress was spotted by director Ramsis Naguib and she took her first role in a modest, black & white drama, Soultan in 1958.[6] Her second picture was a smaller role in one of the film landmarks of its time, Cairo Station. In 1963, she played a Frankish woman warrior of the Crusade era, donning full armor to go into battle against her Christian-Arab lover, in Naser Salah el Dine (occasionally shown on television in the United States as Saladin and the Great Crusades). In Lil-Rigal Faqat (1964), Lutfi and co-star Soad Hosny played women geologists who, denied employment, respond by disguising themselves as men and going to work, where they find they must suppress their romantic instincts to sustain the disguise.[7]
In the mid-1960s, she starred in two films that were based on stories by Nobel-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, just a few years following the publication of his widely banned novel of Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, Children of Gebelawi. Lutfi finished the decade starring in Abi foq al-Shagara (1969) as a nightclub dancer who beds a much younger man, then discovers that she once knew his father equally well.[7] She starred in several films with Soad Hosny, including Al-Saba' Banat (The Seven Girls).[8][9]
In the 1970s, her career wound down as Egypt's "Golden Age" for films drew to a close. Having made close to 50 films in the first 11 years of her career, she only made three in the decade that followed, and did not work in films since 1981. In 2006, she returned to the spotlight when a video by young Lebanese singer Nourhanne recreated a musical scene from one of her first films, Bain al Qasrayn.
In 2014, the Cairo International Film Festival paid tribute to Nadia Lutfi by using her photo on the Festival's official poster.[6]
Death
On 4 February 2020, after being in intensive care for some time, Nadia Lutfi died in Maadi Hospital.[10]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Arabic Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Cairo Station | Bāb al-Ḥadīd باب الحديد |
| 1958 | Soultan | |
| 1959 | Forever Yours | Hubb lel-Abad حب إلى الأبد |
| 1961 | The Sun Will Never Set | La Tutf'e al-Shams لا تطفئ الشمس |
| 1961 | Wonderful Memories | Zekraiat Gamila ذكريات جميلة |
| 1961 | The Seven Girls | Al-Saba' Banat |
| 1961 | Part Virgin | |
| 1961 | My Only Love | Hoby al-Waheed حبي الوحيد |
| 1961 | Giants of the Sea | |
| 1962 | The Judge of Love | |
| 1962 | A Student's Diary | |
| 1962 | The Sin | |
| 1962 | Without an Appointment | |
| 1962 | Struggle of Giants | |
| 1962 | Days Without Love | |
| 1962 | Come Back Mother | |
| 1963 | Saladin the Victorious | Al Nasser Salah Ad-Din الناصر صلاح الدين |
| 1963 | The Dark Glasses | |
| 1963 | Marriage in Danger | |
| 1963 | A Bachelor's Life | |
| 1964 | Unforgettable Love | |
| 1964 | The Years of Love | |
| 1964 | The Girls' Revolution | |
| 1964 | Love, Pleasure, and Youth | |
| 1964 | Alone With My Tears | |
| 1964 | A Souvenir of Life | |
| 1965 | The Impossible | |
| 1965 | Unfaithfulness | |
| 1965 | The Private Teacher | |
| 1965 | For Men Only | Lel Regal Fakat للرجال فقط |
| 1966 | The Enemy of Women | |
| 1966 | A Widow is Required | |
| 1967 | The Long Nights | |
| 1967 | Castle of Longing | |
| 1967 | Crazy Love Songs | |
| 1967 | Garima fil hay el hady | |
| 1967 | Endama nouheb | |
| 1967 | El saman wal karif | |
| 1967 | Bint shakieh | |
| 1968 | Three Stories | |
| 1968 | Days of Love | |
| 1969 | My Father Atop a Tree | |
| 1969 | The Night of Counting the Years | Al-Mummia المومياء |
| 1972 | The Visitor | |
| 1973 | Wildflowers | |
| 1975 | Badi'a Masabny | |
| 1977 | Wa sakatat fe bahr el-asal | |
| 1978 | A Trip Inside a Woman | |
| 1980 | Where Do You Hide the Sun? | Ayna Tukhabi'un al-Shams? |
| 1981 | Al-Aqmar | |
| 1982 | El-akdar el-damia | |
| 1986 | House of the Poisoned Family | |
Footnotes
- "نادية لطفي". ليالينا.
- بالفيديو.. "نادية لطفي" تكشف سر تسميتها بـ"بولا",
وأضافت نادية لطفي، خلال حوارها مع الإعلامي أسامة كمال ببرنامج " مساء dmc " أنها اشتركت مع الفنانة الراحلة سعاد حسني في مقابلة وفد بولندي مما جعل الصحفي الشهير كمال الملاخ يطلق شائعة أنها من أصل بولندي، مؤكدة انها مصرية 100% واسم والدتها "فاطمة" ووالدها يدعى "محمد". وروت الفنانة الكبيرة أنها سميت باسم "بولا" نسبة الى الممرضة الراهبة التي كانت تراعي أمها أثناء ولادتها فحينما علمت أن اسمها "بولا" أصرت أن تسمي ابنتها هذا الاسم وأصبح الاسم الحقيقي للفنانة نادية لطفي.
- "Nadia Loutfi".
- "Famed Egyptian actress Nadia Lutfi dies at 83". Arab News. February 4, 2020.
- "نادية لطفى: 'والدتى مصرية واسمها فاطمة وسمتنى'بولا' بسبب راهبة'". بوابة الفجر.
- "PHOTOS: Nadia Lutfi, an Egyptian beauty - Film - Arts & Culture - Ahram Online". english.ahram.org.eg. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
- Nadia Lutfi at IMDb
- "Soad Hosny filmography, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 28 June - 4 July 2001, Issue No. 540". Archived from the original on 10 August 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
- "Soad Hosny", najatalsaghira.wordpress.com; accessed 28 August 2015.
- "Egyptian Actress Nadia Lutfi Dies Aged 83". EgyptianStreets.
