1979 Los Angeles, California
Farid F. Farid
1936
Los Angeles
Interviewed on Feb 6, 2022
by Danny Farid
Danny: Do you remember the first movie you ever watched in theaters?
Farid: (after a couple minutes) No. I can’t remember. I didn’t watch very many movies while in Egypt. I remember the famous actors at the time, like Omar Sharif and Hind Rustum, but none of their movies were particularly memorable to me at the time.
Danny: What about the first movie after you moved to Los Angeles from Cairo?
Farid: Yes, movies were much more popular in Los Angeles when we moved. I don’t know if it was the first one, but my favorite movie was The Sound of Music, which we watched shortly after we moved to Los Angeles.
Danny: What year did you move, and can you remember approximately what year you first watched The Sound of Music?
Farid: We moved when your dad was about 10, so around 1976. Mimi (my dad’s sister, 10 years his junior) had just been born, and we wanted to start her life and ours again in a new country. I think we must have watched the movie together a couple years after that, so I would say around 1979. I was around 43 at the time.
Danny: That’s very interesting that The Sound of Music was your favorite movie. I expected some cool Egyptian film I had never heard of, or something older around the time you were a kid. What about The Sound of Music is so memorable for you?
Farid: Yes, it is surprising. It’s not the first movie I ever saw, but it’s certainly the most memorable because of the circumstances. When we were living in Cairo, there was a lot of religious discrimination against Coptic Christians. We could even feel it from our friends and colleagues, who were mostly Muslim. At some point, we decided that it was best for the family to leave. We were afraid for our kids futures, and weren’t sure that they would be able to achieve great things in Cairo. Now, this has changed, but at the time, we were sure that moving to the United States was the right choice. Me and Soraya (his wife, my grandma), felt resentful (translated from Arabic, as he could not find the right word in English) towards Egypt and wanted to remove ourselves and our children as much as possible from that culture. We found a Coptic church in Santa Monica, and started our new lives there. For me, The Sound of Music is so memorable because it represented our commitment to America.
Danny: Doesn’t The Sound of Music take place in Austria?
Farid: Yes. But it was very popular in Los Angeles and America when it came out, and for us even though the characters were not supposed to be American, they still represented our separation from our Egyptian culture which had caused much pain up until that time. Your dad was probably influenced by us, and while raising you and your brother they did not try to connect you with your Egyptian past and family who remained in Egypt. This is why they did not speak Arabic when you grew up and rarely visited Cairo.
Danny: I see. So I guess I have you to blame for my not being able to speak or understand Arabic (a joke). Let’s get back to the movie. What do you remember about it? What did you think about the characters, actors, story?
Farid: I don’t know. The movie itself was’t particularly special. It was, and still is, my favorite movie, but not for any specific reason. I just liked the characters and the story. It really was the circumstances surrounding the movie that make it memorable. In addition to representing our coming to America, your mom and I also bonded over this movie, as it is her favorite as well. Before they got married (in Cairo, since she still lived there), this was something that we could relate to each other with. Her and her family still lived in Egypt, so it was good to have something in common over the long distance.
Danny: I knew it was her favorite, that’s very interesting! Lastly, do you remember if you watched the movie for the first time in a theater? Who were you with, and was there anything memorable about the location (candy you ate, the crowd, etc)?
Farid: It must not have been in a theater, since we first watched it together many years after its release. It was on the TV at home, but I do remember watching with Soraya and your dad and his siblings (one brother, two sisters). Me and Soraya were so busy with work (they were re-training to become doctors in America), that we probably wouldn’t have gone to a theater anyways.
Danny: Ok. This was so interesting. I never knew any of this, so thank you. Last question: I really wanted to hear about an old Egyptian movie. Do you know of any that you or anyone you knew liked?
Farid: Well I really didn’t watch very many movies. But I think Soraya’s favorite used to be The Nightingale’s Prayer. But it wasn’t what you are hoping for. There were no pharaohs or pyramids or anything “Egyptian” like that. Just a regular movie about a girl avenging her sisters’ death (translated from Arabic).
Danny: Cool, I’ll ask her about it.
