Dananeer (film)

Dananeer
Umm Kulthum singing in the film
Arabicدنانير
Directed byAhmad Badrakhan
Written byAhmad Rami
StarringUmm Kulthum
Sulayman Najib
Abbas Fares
Firdaws Hasan
Music byMuhammad Hasan al-Shuja'i
Release date
  • 29 September 1940 (1940-09-29)[1]: 343 
Running time
90 minutes
CountryEgypt
LanguageArabic

Dananeer (دنانير, also romanised as Dananir) is a 1940 Egyptian musical film directed by Ahmad Badrakhan, written by Ahmad Rami. It stars Umm Kulthum in the title role of a Bedouin girl whose singing talent elevates her from the desert to the caliph's court.[2][3] The historical romance is set in early 9th-century Iraq, during the reign of the fifth Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid, whereas the title character is a semi-fictionalized Dananir al-Barmakiyya, qiyan musician, singer and poet.[1]: 138 [4]

Plot

Dananeer, a Bedouin girl, is discovered singing in a desert oasis by high-ranking court official Ja'far, who brings her to Baghdad. There, she is installed as a concubine of his father Yahya, while becoming a companion of Ja'far. She studies courtly performance under the master musician Ishaq al-Mawsili, and her debut before Caliph Harun al-Rashid wins royal favour, but palace power struggles cause Ja'far's to be executed. Clad in black, Dananir withdraws to her mourning and refuses to sing for the caliph, following which she is about to be executed. Moved by her defiant gestures of devotion to her dead companion, the caliph commands the executioner to stop, declaring that she is a "symbol of loyalty".

Cast

  • Umm Kulthum as Dananeer
  • Suleyman Naguib as Jaafar
  • Abbas Faris as Harun al-Rashid
  • Fouad Shafiq as Abu Nawas
  • Omar Wasfi as Dananeer's Breeder
  • Mansi Fahmy as Ismail bin Yahya
  • Abdul Aziz Khalil as The Executioner Masrour
  • Mahmoud Reda as Abdul Malik bin Saleh
  • Fouad al-Rashidi as al-Fadl bin al-Rabi'
  • Abdul Aziz Ahmed as Ibrahim al-Mawsili
  • Fardous Hassan as Queen Zubaydah
  • Yehia Chahine as Ziyad
  • Serena Ibrahim as The Chief of the Concubines
  • Zuzu Nabil as Concubine
  • Amaal Zayed as Concubine
  • Saliha Qasin as Concubine
  • Hassan Kamel as Hussein al-Khalie'
  • Ali Tabanjat

Music

The film's score is by Muhammad Hasan al-Shuja'i. Eight musical numbers are contained, with compositions by Muhammad al-Qasabgi, Zakariya Ahmad, and Riyad al-Sunbati.[3]

One of the numbers, "Ya Laylat al-Eid", has since become widely recognized throughout the Arab world as one of the popular "Eid songs",[5] which are regularly performed or heard during Eid al-Fitr.[6]

Reception and analysis

Dananeer was somewhat more connected to its historical backdrop than the rest of the early historical films produced by the cinema of Egypt[a]—which, according to Viola Shafik, "were neither based on a literary model nor any profound knowledge of the cited epoch"—but, like them, it exhibited the characteristic use of melodrama in musicals and relied on "lavish props and costumes".[7]

The film is noted as one of the only six film appearances of Kulthum,[2] and according to a 2012 Doha Film Institute review, she "offers some of her best musical performances in this film".[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ starting with the 1935 Shajarat al-Durr, likewise noted as an exception

References

  1. ^ a b Farrell, Margaret (2012). Aspects of Adaptation in the Egyptian Singing Film (PhD thesis). Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Retrieved 31 July 2025 – via CUNY Academic Works. In Danānīr (1940) [Kulthum] returned to historical drama. Set in the Baghdad court ..., the film was based on the life of an actual singing slave named Danānīr al-Bermakīa.
  2. ^ a b Jamal, Areej (2 February 2025). "Six Umm Kulthum films that shaped the voice of Egyptian art". Al Majalla. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Saleh, Reem (18 March 2012). "DFI Film Review: Dananeer". Doha Film Institute. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  4. ^ Gharib, Ashraf (3 February 2018). "Remembering Umm Kalthoum: The grand dame of Arab singing". Al-Ahram. Retrieved 31 July 2025. [Kulthum] played the lives of three slave girls who were famous for their beautiful voices during ancient Islamic eras, namely: Wedad (1936) from the Mamlouk era, Dananeer (1940) from the Abbasid era, and Sallama (1945) from the Umayyad era.
  5. ^
  6. ^
  7. ^ Shafik, Viola (2001). "Egyptian cinema". In Leaman, Oliver (ed.). Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film. Routledge. pp. 46, 54, 66, 67. ISBN 978-0-203-42649-4.
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