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In this book, Deborah A. Starr recuperates the work of Togo Mizrahi, a pioneer of Egyptian cinema. Mizrahi, an Egyptian Jew with Italian nationality, established himself as a prolific director of popular comedies and musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. As a studio owner and producer, Mizrahi promoted the idea that developing a local cinema industry was a project of national importance. Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema integrates film analysis with film history to tease out the cultural and political implications of Mizrahi’s work. His movies, Starr argues, subvert dominant notions of race, gender, and nationality through their playful—and queer—use of masquerade and mistaken identity. Taken together, Mizrahi’s films offer a hopeful vision of a pluralist Egypt. By reevaluating Mizrahi’s contributions to Egyptian culture, Starr challenges readers to reconsider the debates over who is Egyptian and what constitutes national cinema.

About the Author

Deborah A. Starr is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt: Literature, Culture, and Empire and coeditor of Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff.

Reviews

"Deborah A. Starr’s study of the pioneering Jewish-Egyptian film-maker Togo Mizrahi has arrived at a good time. . . . wherever this goes in the future, Togo Mizrahi’s Levantine dreams look very appealing from where we are now."
— Times Literary Supplement

"The cinema of Togo Mizrahi is a vital contribution not only to Arab cinema but to the understanding of a region whose heterogeneity is methodically ignored."
— New Arab

"Offers a complex and subtle analysis of a neglected and important figure—and suggests new ways of thinking about Muslim-Jewish interactions."
— Markaz Review

"“Starr’s book recuperates this cinematic history through its welcome account of the pluralistic, hugely entertaining, and popular cinema of Mizrahi and, by extension, by making a case for why Mizrahi and other Alexandrians––Jewish, Greek, Italian, or otherwise––of his era were every bit as Egyptian as their citizen compatriots. . . . Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for film scholars and students of early cinema in Egypt and for its contribution to thinking of cinema outside national histories."
— Critical Inquiry

"Starr wonderfully recaptures a pre-1948 Egypt in which Jews enjoyed a level of coexistence with their Arab neighbors."
— Sephardic Horizons

"In her detailed examination of Mizrahi’s oeuvre, Starr contributes to our understanding of the Egyptian movie industry and the role of Jews in its development. Of special emphasis is the treatment of indigenous people holding foreign citizenship in this process. The study is also of importance to women and gender studies, examining queerness and the role of both Jewish and Muslim women in the entertainment industry."
— Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

"A captivating account of Egyptian film director Togo Mizrahi. Starr shows that Mizrahi's distinct, often comical vision of Egypt captured a dramatic moment of social, political, and cultural transformation in which people of diverse backgrounds coexisted and struggled to achieve better lives."—Joel Gordon, author of Revolutionary Melodrama: Popular Film and Civic Identity in Nasser’s Egypt

"A remarkable study of a remarkable career. Starr offers a comprehensive analysis of a life in filmmaking that adds nuance to our definition of Egyptian nationalism and enhances our appreciation of Alexandrian cinema. This is a book of recovery, reclamation, and celebration."—Nancy E. Berg, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis

Media

Author Deborah Starr talks about her book