In 1934-35 the Studio Misr was established in Egypt. The film studio was founded by the , which is still a functioning bank, and under Talaat Harb a very well-known economist and co-founder of Banque Misr. Banque Misr was founded in 1920 and it had the goal of nationalizing Egypt's economy. The initiative to open their own film studio was part of Egypt's nationalization process. Harb managed to send young men abroad to learn the newest European techniques in film production and then with funding from Banque Misr acquired sophisticated equipment. The Studio Misr was a very successful project. It produced many successful movies, such as "Wedad, Munyet Shababi, al-‘Azeema, Salama fi Kheir", and many more. The success of many of these movies was due to the movie touching on important social issues of the time such as poverty. Many big stars also grew through this company, such as Umm Kulthum who was already a successful singer, but started a successful acting career. 