Lama Brothers

Still from Ma‘arouf al-Badawi (Ma‘arouf the Bedouin, 1935) with Badr and , Ibrahim’s son Abdullah who would grow up to be an actor under the stage name Samir Abdallah.

The brothers Pedro (1907–1947) and Abraham (1904–1953) Lamas, later known as Badr and Ibrahim Lama, arrived in Alexandria in 1924 on their way to their native Bethlehem. The two Chileans of Palestinian origin (their family name possibly a corruption of al-A’ma, meaning ‘the blind’) were cinema aficionados who found Alexandria a welcoming city with considerable potential for them to realize their cinematic ambitions. They decided to stay and eventually founded their own production company, Condor Film. Badr, the more handsome of the two would become the actor and Ibrahim, the more enterprising, would work on the production side, not only producing but also directing, scriptwriting, editing, and more, as was often the case during the early days of filmmaking. In 1927, the brothers raced against time to out-pace Aziza Amir’s Laila and produce the first “Egyptian” feature film Qubla fi Al Sahara (A Kiss in The Desert). Their film was finally screened in Cairo on 25 January 1927, about three months after Amir’s film.

For more, see Samy Helmy's article "Startup City" from Rawi magazine's Issue 9 available online (link in details).