direct-cinema-styled documentaries or news reels. Eventually, they did more news reels and also began creating short films. In 1906, Felix Mesguich, who worked for the Lumière Brothers, went to Egypt to film a short film on his camera for them. The film-viewing audience in Egypt kept growing until in 1908 there were a total of eleven movie theaters in the country. One of the French theaters brought in a camera and photographer to create local news reels to play exclusively in their own theater to compete with the other theaters. With this growing interest in film, Italian investors opened STICA film company in the city that was to be the hub of film, Alexandria, in 1917. Eventually, they shut down due to their low-quality films and the unfamiliarity of the producers with the Egyptian environment. One of the three films they created featured verses from the Muslim Qur'an vertically inverted which led it to being banned by government officials. Furthermore, their films had Italian actors and directors which did not help their case. With time, more films and newsreels were created. In 1926, the Lebanese Lama brothers came back from Argentina with their cameras and began creating Western-styled films in the deserts of Egypt. Up until that point, Egyptians had not been happy that most of the films that were created were not done by Egyptians and featured Western actors in an Egyptian setting. Finally, the film Layla (1927) was vastly popular because it was produced by an Egyptian theater actress, Aziza Amir, and features a narrative that was familiar to most Egyptian audiences. Therefore, this film was considered by many the first Egyptian film (even though it was directed by a Turkish director) and was the first film to be produced by a woman. This marked the beginning of the national cinema in Egypt. Following this there was a peak in Egyptian film production. "From 1927 to 1930 two full-length films were produced a year, five films were released in 1931 and six in both 1933 and 1934". Although all these films were created independently, in 1935, Studio Misr was founded and was followed by six more studios from 1936 to 1948. Studio Misr did not dominate the industry, but was one of the big factors that launched Egyptian cinema (including their decision to move production from Alexandria to Cairo). During this time, Egypt was the strongest Arab and