A short clip of Egyptian dancer Katy from the 1953 film ‘Ibn Thawat’. Katy (her name is also spelt Kitty, Keti and Katie) was born in Alexandria to a Greek father and Egyptian mother. She appeared in many movies from the 1950s through to the mid-1960s but left Egypt in mysterious circumstances after being implicated in a spy plot.
The film title is also spelt “Ibn Zawat” and means ‘Son of the Privileged’ though some sites call it ‘Gilded Youth’ or ‘Son of Nobles’. Anyway you get the gist. The film starred Ismail Yassin and like many of Yassin’s movies, it was written by Abo El Seoud El Ebiary. Ismail Yassin plays a wealthy young man living the high life in Cairo. His uncle decides he should marry and chooses a suitable girl to be the young man’s bride. When the uncle asks the girl to marry his nephew she tells him she can’t because she’s already in love with another man but her father refuses to let her marry her intended. Eventually the uncle finds out that the man in question is his nephew. The girl’s father relents and everyone lives happily ever after. The term ‘ibn zawat’ is used by awlad baladi almost as an insult, meaning a person who is soft and cares only about outward appearances.