Most of us may be unaware how deep the cultural and artistic ties between Egypt and Hungary, and most of us do not also know that there is an Egyptian Nubian tribe of Hungarian origins, Magrous Tribe.

 

 It is a tribe that came to the Southern Egypt to settle there from the Danube River valley basin neighbouring "Krebat" in Middle Europe. That was during the Ottoman era when Hungary and Balkans peninsula countries up to the borders with Austria were affiliates to the Ottoman state.

 

Based on this background, the Hungarian satellite channel, DUNA, was keen on shooting a big documentary film that has been aired in four parts over a month at a rate of one episode a week.

 

 The Hungarian television crew has made several interviews with the Magrous tribe where they are living in southern Egypt. The members of this tribe are characterized by dark complexion, handsome features, blue eyes and their gray to chestnut hair.

 

 The DUNA channel camera cleverly shot the humane features of those it met, let alone the beautiful Nubian nature, the simple clean and distinguished beautiful architecture of the houses and the Nubian clothes of snow-white colour with the famous Nubian hair cover. 

  

The Hungarian cameras moved greeting the Egyptian Nile from the core of Nuba and the Sudanese neighbourhood in southern Egypt towards the north in Alexandria. Then the cameras went to the depth of the valley in Luxor and Asiut till Cairo and Giza, and moving to Sinai, the north coast, Siwa and Al-Wady Al-Gadid oases. This is where the cameras honestly and understandingly and friendly moved and got closer to the people and the place.

 

The characters that the programme hosted in Egypt spoke either Arabic or English, with exception to the surprise of the great artist Mariam Fakhr-El-Din who was interviewed in the Hungarian language that she speaks fluently; being half Hungarian half Egyptian.

 

 It was not the beautiful Mariam Fakhr-El-Din; the actress of successful imprints on the romantic cinema, that the interview evoked, rather it was the one who represents the meeting of both the Egyptian and the Hungarian cultures.

 

 

Owing to her Arab belonging and Hungarian roots, Mariam Fakhr El-Din could successfully voice the Arab and Hungarian cultural traits in a dialogue equivalent to the Euro-Mediterranean one boosted by "Analinda" institution which chose Alexandria as its headquarter.

 

 She spoke of the givens of each culture and their influences on people in Egypt and Hungary. The director succeeded in merging Mariam Fakhr-El-Din's conversation with a variety of scenes form the Egyptian street. He combined and got close to the Egyptian citizen in addition to the Arabs and foreigners who live in Egypt with those who love to visit it from all over the world.

 

Shots interchanged with the voice of Mariam Fakhr-El-Din in the background and her picture lovingly melt with places of public gatherings, social clubs and shops of antiquities and oriental perfumes. At this point, the film reaches to Alexandrian shores, Red Sea, archeological sites and modern features and architecture.

 

The "Danube Greets the Nile" is mainly about Hungarians in Egypt and in other parts in the Arab countries and the Middle East countries. The programme interviewed many of such people.

 

 including some Hungarian ladies married to Egyptians with their children who have gone their different walks of life.

 

  Moreover, the programme interviewed some elderly Hungarian immigrants to Egypt during WWI when Hungary together with Austria represented the pillars of a great empire that WWI demolished. A defeat that was followed by dividing the affiliated regions that extended from the Mediterranian and the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

 

Professor Abdel-Kareem Germanous is one of the most famous characters where the film made many stops. He fluently spoke eleven languages; Greek, Latin, English, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Turkish. He lived in Cairo for a long time where he delved into the study of Islam at the hands of sheikhs from Al-Azhar.

 

 He was also a member of the Arabic Assembly in Cairo and the Scientific Assembly in Baghdad. Abbas Mahmoud Al-'Aqad said about him that he is a ten-scientist-worth man. In addition, Dr. Mohammad Hassanein Heikal dedicated his book "In the Home of Inspiration" to Germanous after he read his study East Muslim.

 

Professor Germanous left a scientific heritage rich in depth and variation which is represented in his writings; Turkish Grammar (1925), Turkish Revolution and Arab Nationalism (1928), Modern Turkish Literature (1931), New Trends in Islam (1932), Exploring and Conquering Arabian Peninsula, Syria and Iraq (1940), Arab Culture Renaissance (1944), Studies in Arabic Formations (1954), Ibn El-Romy (1956), Among Intellectuals (1958), Towards East Lights and A Selection of Arab Poets (1961), and In Islamic Culture and Arab's Culture (1964).

 

 In addition, he was preparing for three books on, immigration literature, Arab travelers and Ibn Batota, and finally the history of Arab literature.

 

The programme made a stop at the pioneer actor and director Estefan Rosty and director Seif-Ed-Din Shawkat who directed "Shamshon and Liblib"; a cinema masterpiece in which actors Mahmoud Shekoko and Serag Mounir starred.

 

In Plastic art the programme made a stop at the works of the Hungarian artist Balinet who excelled in painting especially in Portraits. This artist lived in Alexandria and his works are still among the salient artistic pieces in Egyptian houses in Cairo and Alexandria.

 

- Mariam Fakhr-El-Din, Estefan Rosty and Director Seif-Ed-Din Shawkat…most famous artists from a Hungarian Origin.

 

- Hungarian channel DUNA made the film a bridge for Arab and Hungarian cultures to meet in a real event of Euro-Mediterranean dialogue.

 

- Discovering an Egyptian Nubian tribe of Hungarian origin…Magrous Tribe came from Danube Basin and settled in Southern Egypt during the Ottoman era.