Thread: Berlanti Abdel Hamid: fascinating, both on and off stage

Berlanti Abdel Hamid is the dancer in this clip from the 1960 film Nida'a al 'ushaq (The Lovers' Call). She's dancing during the opening credits and again with a cane in a scene from later in the film. Berlanti was an actress more than a dancer, usually playing the part of an seductress. The film tells the story of Ward (Rose), played by Berlanti, who runs away from her village after witnessing a murder. She starts working in a cotton factory and falls in love with Abdo a co-worker. It all goes wrong and they are both die at the hand of the evil character played by Farid Shawqi. (He's the shifty looking guy shown at the end of the clip.) The film also starred Shokry Sarhan.
Berlanti certainly had a colourful life off stage! She was married to Abdel Hakim Amer the Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army who was for several years the first Vice President to Gamal Nasser with the power to rule Egypt should the President be unable to do so. Field Marshall Amer's career came to end after the 6 Day War in 1967 and he died the same year after being arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow Nasser. Some say he committed suicide while others, including Berlanti, say he was poisoned by government agents. In the early 2000's she was involved in a public slanging match with the team who proposed making a movie, Al Rais wa al Muhir (The President and the Marshal) based on her late husband's life. The script was rejected by Egypt's censors in 2004 claiming that permission had to be granted by military intelligence who rejected the script. In 2009 the production company obtained a Court ruling that overturned the censor's decision and the project was approved. I haven't found any info on whether, in the end, the film was made.
In 2000 an Israeli tv programme alleged that Berlanti along with three other Egyptian actresses (Hind Rostom, Nadia Lofti and Mariam Fakhreddin) had worked for the Israeli secret service Mossad. The claims were strenuosuly denied.
Berlanti Abdel Hamid died in December 2010.

Interesting! What a life! And thanks for the movie clip link--my friend Debbie looks a lot like her, it is sort of odd to see! I am going to send her this link!

Edited to add: Debbie Smith is who I mean, who I am sure counts other bhuzzers as friends as well. Do you guys see it?!

Originally Posted by TheCaroVan

In the early 2000's she was involved in a public slanging match with the team who proposed making a movie, Al Rais wa al Muhir (The President and the Marshal) based on her late husband's life. The script was rejected by Egypt's censors in 2004 claiming that permission had to be granted by military intelligence who rejected the script. In 2009 the production company obtained a Court ruling that overturned the censor's decision and the project was approved. I haven't found any info on whether, in the end, the film was made.

I didn't get very far looking for more information. Elcinema has a 2011 date on the project
السينما - المشير و الرئيس - فيلم - 2011. There's a director attached to the project, Khaled Yousef, Chahine's protégé, and the two male leads have been cast, Fathi Abdel Wahab and Ahmed al-Sakka. The script is written, since they're talking about censored scenes here http://dvd4arab.maktoob.com/showthread.php?t=2009652. I couldn't locate the article that thread was talking about, but I found one where Gamal (Amer's son) claims scriptwriter Mamdouh al-Leithy was not responsive to his input, so he's not supporting the film
جمال عبدالحكيم عامر: والدى كتب بخط يده «إذا أتانى الموت فسيكون الذى دبر قتلى عبدالناصر». (Then he goes on to talk about something about the film having trouble finding a financier, maybe? Not quite sure what he's saying after the prompt
تشويه لصالح مَنْ؟) That's all I could dig up.

ETA: Bhuz's editor really struggles with text of mixed L->R and R->L word orders. I think all of the words are in the right sequence now, but it refuses to move that closing quote to the end of the last link description.