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Mon 07 Jul 2008Film-maker Chahine dies in Cairo at 82
EQYPT:YOUSSEF CHAHINE, the Arab world's greatest film-maker and recipient of the 50th annual lifetime achievement award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, died in his home in Cairo yesterday at the age of 82. French president Nicolas Sarkozy praised him as "a fervent defender of freedom of expression".
Born in 1926 in Alexandria into a Christian family, Chahine attended prestigious Victoria College, the alma mater of many Arab and Egyptian intellectuals who made major contributions to 20th century Arab culture. After spending one year at the University of Alexandria, he went to the US to study drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
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