Stephan Rosti


Stephan Rosti was an Egyptian actor and film director who lived and worked in Egypt.

Personal

Rosti's mother was an Italian Egyptian dancer. She was performing in Egypt when she met Rosti's father, the Austrian ambassador to Cairo. Rosti's mother was enamoured with Egypt to the point that when it was time for the diplomat father to terminate his political assignment and return to his country, she refused to travel with him and decided to remain in Egypt with her son. To escape the father's attempts to smuggle the child out of Egypt, she escaped with the child to Alexandria and they lived in the Raas Al-Teen neighborhood where Stephan enrolled in its local schools.
As a young man, Rosti travelled to Austria seeking recognition by his father, but to no avail. As he danced and worked odd jobs in Austria, Germany, and France. Rosti met and befriended two visiting Egyptian film-makers, Mohammed Karim and Sirag Mounir, who encouraged him to return to Egypt to work in cinema, given his fluency in Egyptian Arabic and after he expressed his desire to do so. Rosti returned to Egypt and enrolled as a student in the "Acting Institute" of Cairo, and accepted his first role as director of the first wholly Egyptian feature film, "Layla" from producer Aziza Amir in 1927.
Rosti appeared in 24 Egyptian films between 1927 and 1964. He also directed seven Egyptian films between 1931 and 1946. He was renowned for portraying evil characters with a satirical inclination, and he became an icon of the Egyptian film industry.

Filmography

Actor::
... a.k.a. A Woman on the Outside
... a.k.a. The Funny Crime
... a.k.a. Madmen in Paradise
... a.k.a. The Pickpocket
... a.k.a. Struggle of Giants
... a.k.a. Lady of the Castle
... a.k.a. The Heart Has Its Reasons
... a.k.a. The Night Train
... a.k.a. Don't Tell Anyone
... a.k.a. Mat'culch le had
... a.k.a. My Father Deceived Me
... a.k.a. The Last Lie
... a.k.a. The Flirtation of Girls
... a.k.a. Lady Afrita
... a.k.a. Holidays in Hell
... a.k.a. A Sleepless Man
... a.k.a. The Adventures of Antar and Abla
... a.k.a. Mr. Nightingale
... a.k.a. Mr. Omar
... a.k.a. Everything Is Fine
... a.k.a. Antar Esquire
... a.k.a. Lord of the Revels
... a.k.a. Why Is the Sea Chuckling?
Laila
Director:
... a.k.a. Gamal and Dalal
... a.k.a. The Fairest One
... a.k.a. The Urchin
... a.k.a. Antar Esquire
... a.k.a. Song of the Heart
... a.k.a. Lord of the Revels
Writer:
... a.k.a. The Night Train
... a.k.a. Gemal and Dalal
... a.k.a. The Urchin
... a.k.a. Song of the Heart
Editorial Department:
... a.k.a. The Urchin