Alexandria . . . Why?

Having spent the larger part of the 1960s and ’70s examining the rise and fall of Egypt’s first republic, director Youssef Chahine turned inwards with this kaleidoscopic, semi-autobiographical evocation of his wartime childhood, the first in a quartet of films collectively dubbed “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” A bustling, novelistically detailed recreation of the cosmopolitan Alexandria during World War II, the film follows Chahine’s teenage alter ego Yehia (Mohsen Mohieddin) as he escapes from the engulfing uncertainty of Egyptian reality into a world of Hollywood fantasy—only to find himself gradually pulled toward student activism. Working with some of Egypt’s biggest stars of the time and deftly balancing a dizzying array of subplots—including a queer romance—Chahine creates a deeply personal tapestry of art, politics, culture, and community at a transformative moment in Egyptian history.