Taheya Carioca, Fairouz, Melaya Leff

From the 1951 film Fairouz Hanem (the lady Fairouz) starring Egyptian child star Fairouz Arteen Kalevan. In this film Fairouz plays the part of a young orphan who's wealthy parents left her a huge fortune when they died. The executor of the will is the bald man, (played by Hasan Faik) who is a thief and is stealing all of Fairouz's inheritance along with his accomplice (played by Stephan Rosti)
In this scene, Fairouz has just arrived at her elegant home with her newly found friends who are from a sha'abi neighborhood. There is a high society party going on and the executor doesn't want to allow anyone in who is wearing a melaya leff because it's not considered classy, but Fairouz pushes her way in and informs him that these are her friends and she invited them. As they walk across the room the guests begin to murmur and whisper as to why melaya leff wearing people would be allowed into this party, and they ask how did melaya leffs find their way into an elegant home? Some turn their backs. Then the clips has Fairouz clad in her very own melaya leff singing about the wonders of the garment, the lyrics of her song talk about how there is no other garment as beautiful as the melaya leff in the entire world. This melaya leff dance is quite different from the later version developed by Reda for his theater show.
Fairouz also sings about the beauty of the bourgo3 and the kasaba (the face covering and the nosepiece) In old times in Egypt, the kasaba was sometimes made of metal, and among the more well to do sha'abi women it would sometimes be made of silver or gold.
Taheya carioca dances with sagat towards the end of the clip while Fairouz sings dressed as a little boy in a galabeya. Taheya Carioca plays the part of the sister of one of the melaya leff wearing women in this film, her character works as a dancer at a club and for this reason she is not on good terms with her father. She has been hired to dance at this party by the executor.
Actress Fairouz Kalevan is the sister of Nelly, who is famous in Egypt and the middle east as well, for the fawazeer that she used to do every year during Ramadan. They are the cousins of another Egyptian actress and dancer, Lebleba and they are Egyptians of Armenian heritage, Fairouz is alive and well, retired from show business and presently lives in Cairo.

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Film & Animation

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• Taheya Carioca

[simozimo09]

Lebdancer, not only you have the most beautiful and rare bellydance clips on youtube, but you also provide extremely precious information along with them. Alf shukran!!!

[lebdancer]

@simozimo09 Thanks for the kind words. Glad you are enjoying the clips!

[IrisMG]

The world would have never known about this young lady and her acting family were it not for YouTube and Lebdancer. I had no idea that there were films like this outside of the United States. Thank you for this wonderful clips and the education!

[Jenrajni]

Does anyone have a translation of the dialog and lyrics?

[shiradotnet]

This video is so much fun!  Once again, thank you for posting a wonderful clip AND for providing the extensive background information about the scene.

[liviapj]

I love it! Merci!

[freebirdh]

too funny