Cinema
Fools' Alley
درب المهابيل
Tawfik Saleh · 1955
Synopsis
In a working-class alley, Taha is putting money aside to marry Khadiga, who is saving on her side; according to elCinema, they need forty pounds for second-hand furniture and the wedding. Taha buys a lottery ticket and entrusts it to the girl, but her father, a pious man for whom gambling is forbidden, throws it out. The neighbourhood simpleton picks it up, and the ticket wins the jackpot: as soon as the news spreads, each of the neighbours wants his share.
Context
The first feature film by Tawfiq Saleh, released on 1 January 1955 according to elCinema, it was written with Naguib Mahfouz. Mada Masr notes its use of ballads and a manner that distinguishes it from the alley films of the same period; Al Jazeera notes a mobile camera preferred to cutting. According to Ahram Online, it earned its two authors the national prize for direction, but was at first a commercial failure; the director's next film came only in 1962.
Who it is for
A feature film in black and white, one and a half hours long, in Egyptian Arabic, centred on a single alley and its inhabitants.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a State prize according to Ahram Online, and regarded as one of the major Egyptian films of the fifties.
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