EGYPT: Star-gazing in Cairo

By Borzou Daragahi in Cairo

Cairo’s teeming, smog-choked streets cloak all in anonymity. Even blond-haired, blue-eyed foreign visitors don’t draw too much attention.

But I've never experienced anything quite like walking out of the Café Arabica in downtown Cairo with the famous actress Hind Sabri while reporting my story on the Egyptian movie industry.

All of a sudden, the calloused eyes of Cairo street vendors, police officers and passersby lit up with delight, swarming toward her. A few asked for autographs, but most just greeted her politely.

I felt like a bigshot, as if I were hangin’ with Julia Roberts.

“Madame Hind! Madame Hind!” the teenage boys called out, bowing as they approached her.

Sabri, the start of a dozen Arabic-language movies, took an unusual path to stardom. The brown-eyed Tunisian-born beauty, in her mid-20s, got a master's degree in intellectual property rights law while entering show business. She continues to study law and speaks with the eloquence of a trial lawyer, toggling easily between Arabic and fluent English and French.

“In Tunisia there are no stars,” she said, explaining why she chose to move to Cairo and speak in the Egyptian dialect for her movie roles. “Here, the stars are the real masters. Like in Hollywood, you sell a name, not a script or director.”

Like Hollywood, media and gossip websites here like Waleg.com (it’s in English, so check it out) chronicle the foibles of the Arab world’s film and music stars, including stormy romances and spats with airport security.

“It’s a jail to be a star,” she said. “It’s very hard to go out of this name and image you make for yourself. You don’t have the freedom to do what you want to do.”

Still the crowd remained polite and respectful as Sabri entered a car to take her back to the movie set. Stars shine in Egypt, but unlike Hollywood, the paparazzi have yet to arrive.

Photo: Hind Sabri; Credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill / For The Times