Soraya Youssef Atallah, her real name, is one of the most important stars of her generation, possessing a unique talent, and a complex and unforgettable role in the history of cinema, theater and television in Egypt, to etch her name in letters of light in the record of creators.
She is the artist Sanaa Jamil, who was born in Minya Governorate in 1930, and today is the anniversary of her death, as she left our world, on this day, December 22, 2002.
Despite her passion for acting, her family was an obstacle to her, as they prevented her from entering the field of art, and when she joined the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts without her brother’s knowledge and was staying with him in Cairo, she was expelled from the house and her family disavowed her.
Sanaa Jamil suffered a lot following that, as she sometimes slept on the tiles and worked in the field of detail, and did not despair, but faced challenges and crises in entering the field of acting, and succeeded in completing her studies at the Institute of Theatrical Arts and then joined to work with the Fattouh My Theatrical Activity Troupe, until I entered the acting portal in the fifties .
Sanaa Jamil refused to act with the new generations, saying: “People are shorts of literature, they memorize the words and say it just like that, the word and its meaning means a world, we are a generation that respects what we do.” Sana was very angry with the new actresses.
And when they asked her if she would accept acting with any of Ahmed El-Sakka and Mohamed Henedy, she said: “I do not reconcile with them, these people have made specific and fixed personalities for themselves. I can’t imagine a man standing on the stage dancing.”
And she continued: “A man who breaks into a man, a man who shakes his hands like Najwa Fouad, I am not convinced, maybe I am wrong, but I do not accept my soul for sarcasm, the theater is not a cabaret, the theater has its respect and great people have trampled on it .. Unfortunately I lost hope in the youth “.
And regarding the story of Sana Jameel with the great writer Louis Grace, it is one of the most famous stories of love and adoration, as he met for the first time in her home to bid farewell to one of her friend who was staying with her and who was also his girlfriend. Her artistic career, and she also supported him until she headed the editor-in-chief of Rose El-Youssef magazine.
Sanaa Jamil suffered in her last years from cancer, which she fought until she died at the age of 72. She had recommended to her husband, Louis Grace, not to bury her except in the presence of a member of her family, who had been cut off from her throughout her life.
Louis decided not to bury her until he fulfilled her will, so Louis published an obituary in Arabic and English newspapers inside and outside Egypt, but to no avail, as the body remained for 3 days in her bedroom, and no one from her family appeared, so he buried her.