In 1954, while filming a Youssef Chahine film, "Struggle in the Valley", Hamama refused to have the Egyptian actor Shukry Sarhan as a co-star, and Chahine offered Omar Sharif the role. Omar had just graduated from college then and was working for his father; Hamama accepted him as her co-star. Hamama had never agreed to act any scene involving a kiss in her career, but she accepted. They fell in love, and Sharif converted to Islam and married her. This marriage started a new era of Hamama's career, in which the couple made many films together. Sharif and Hamama were the romantic leads of "Ayyamna al-Holwa" (أيامنا الحلوة, "Our Sweet Days"), "Ard al-Salam" (أرض السلام, "Land of Peace"), "La Anam" (لا أنام, "Sleepless") and "Sayyidat al-Qasr" (سيدة القصر, "The Lady of the Palace"). Their last film together before their divorce, was "Nahr al-Hob" (نهر الحب, "The River of Love") in 1960.