Youssef Chahine’s French wife Colette (centre) attends his funeral in Cairo yesterday. (EPA)

DOHA • Egyptian cinema fans and eminent leaders from different parts of the world paid rich tributes to legendary director Youssef Chahine, 82, who passed away on Sunday.

Thousands of mourners gathered in the Roman Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Egypt yesterday as Chahine was carried in, draped in the Egyptian flag.

The congregation included many of the biggest stars of Egyptian cinema, dozens of journalists along with officials from the ruling National Democratic Party which was often targetted in Chahine's film. Other parties across the political spectrum were also there.

"He was one of the most important film-makers in the world, not just in the Arab world," renowned Egyptian actor Nur Al Sherif was quoted by

an agency.

Following the ceremony, Chahine was buried in the family crypt in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, according to Egypt's official MENA news agency.

The film-maker went into a coma in June after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Afterwards, he was flown to Paris for medical care but was returned to a Cairo hospital, where he died, according to The Guardian.

"Chahine was attached to his Egyptian homeland, yet he was open to the world," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement distributed by Elysee Palace. "Chahine was an independent intellectual who advocated the merging of cultures," he said. "In consideration of his involvement in the construction of Egyptian Cinema," President Hosni Mubarak was intending to pay the director's medical bills when he was taken ill, including paying for him to be flown to Paris, according to one report.

Chahine won official plaudits for his pioneering role in Egypt's film industry and was awarded the Cannes film festival's 50th anniversary lifetime achievement award in 1997. It was only one of several such prizes, the most recent coming from the organizers of the Dubai International Film Festival late last year.

"He adopted a generation of artists and introduced them in his movies," said Saleem Mustafa Al Ghazawi, a Doha-based fan of the legend. "He discovered and untapped the talents of those artists. Chahine is a legend that is unlikely to be match ever."

Indeed, the fiercely director always faced controversy during his long career, criticizing US foreign policy as well as Egypt and the Arab world. "He was a courageous director. He boldly portrayed the problems that affected Egypt when no one else from the creative field dared to do so. There can be no one else like him," said Abdel Shakor Al Said Nafeh, another Doha resident.

Chahine made his first film in Egypt in 1950. He discovered and launched the career of Omar Sherif who shortly thereafter shot to international stardom after performing in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and "Doctor Zhivago" (1965).