Youssef Chahine in coma

According to the BBC, Youssef Chahine has lapsed into a coma , after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Chahine has been flown to France for further medical treatment.

UPDATE: Chanine recieved a head injury a forthnight ago, and on saturday he lapsed into a coma. Apparently he was taken to Ash Shuruq hospital at first, where the doctors diagnosed the brain haemorrhage, he was moved to an intensive care unit, and they tried to stabilize it, something that was made difficult due to the fact that Chahine was on blood thinning medicine. The decision was made to take him on a chartered flight out of Cairo with destination,the American Hospital in Neuilly outside of Paris, France.

The 82-year-old "is in a coma following a cerebral haemorrhage," Mohammed Abdel Daher of Ash-Shuruq hospital in Cairo told Egypt's MENA news agency on Sunday, adding that Chahine was in a "serious" condition.

President Hosni Mubarak said that the state would pay for the treatment in homage to Chahine´s contribution to Egyptian Cinema.

Chahine is the only Egyptian film maker with a world wide reputation, and has been in the film making business from 1950, and has given us films like Ibn al Nil(Son of the Nile) in 1951 who got him his firt taste of Cannes, Bab al Hadid 1958(The train Station), Al Naser Sallah ad Din 1963(Sallah ad Din , the Victorious) the filmatization of Abd al Rahman al Sharqawi´s al Ard 1969(the Land), Chanine´s very own Alexandria Quartet, a autobiographical chronicle about his beloved home city and equally his love story with American Film (PDF), beginning with Iskanderiya leh? 1978(Alexandria Why?), Haduta Masriyya 1982(An Egyptian Story) Iskaneriya Kaman wa kaman 1989(Alexandria , Again and Forever) and ending with Iskanderiya-New York(Alexandria-New York) in 2004, Adieu Bonaparte 1985, al Muhager 1995(The Emigrant), al Massir 1997(Destiny), al Akhar 1999(the Other) and his latest, Heya Fawda(Chaos) that recently made box office success, although less so with the critics.

He also played a crucial role in the careers of Egyptian movie Icons and love birds , Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama
.

More on his films can be found here and here

I´ll be updating as more information becomes available. Here is an old fustat entry on Chahine.

Let´s hope for the best and a speedy recovery for the doyen of Egyptian and Arab film, Uncle Joe.