The Raqs Sharqi museum is honoured to publish a translation of a 1935 clipping about Nabaweya Mustafa. This clipping is in the private collection of Shining Peacekeeper, who kindly provided the translation and the picture. Thank you very much!
Translation
Translation assistance by Mari Mohammed with edits by Shining Peacekeeper.
Magazine
Al Aroussa W Al Fan Al Cinema Magazine
No. 547 Vol. XI. Cairo 28th August 1935
(Most likely written by magazine Editor El Sayed Hassan Gomaa)
An Acting, Dancing and Singing Star
The thing Egyptian cinema needs most is the new faces which directors search for here and there in order to introduce to the audience shining stars who will appear on the screen and impress them with their charm and magnetism. The well-known director Ibrahim Lama managed to find our young star Nabaweya Mostafa, and his discovery was a very important event in the local cinema. Miss Nabaweya Mostafa is not only one of the few girls who possess talents rarely found in other girls, but her talents combine three arts: acting, dancing, and singing, and the audience will see her in her roles in each of those arts.
Even though Nabaweya had never appeared on the screen, in an interview of mine with her she said: “I fell in love with cinema a long time ago, and I always used to go to the movie theaters and watch the stars totally amazed. I also used to collect magazines in many languages, and I would passionately read the stars’ news and their biographies and admire their photos, which increased my obsession with the cinema to the point that I made a semi-studio out of my own room and I would act there in front of the mirror, all the scenes that I would see here on the screen. However, I was looking for more than that; I was looking forward to seeing myself in a real, non-imaginary studio, and finally, that dream has come true, as you can see.”
Nabaweya stopped talking for a second and looked like she woke up from a beautiful dream to see herself facing the truth and reality. She said while her eyes wandered the studio corners: “I thought that working in the cinema industry was easy and relaxed, but I found it very tiring and exhausting!! It’s a nerve-racking and physically taxing job, but despite that, it’s a very fun job if you end up with a satisfying result.”
While she talked, her tone of voice indicated her great self-confidence. It wasn’t surprising anymore that she stood in front of the camera, not nervous or stammering. It seems one of the special traits that Nabaweya has is her hard work and determination; she doesn’t show any frustration when the director Ibrahim Lama asks her to re-do a scene many times until the scene comes out as desired. So wouldn’t we, after all that, predict a great future for her?
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