Cinema
The Beginning and the End
بداية ونهاية
Salah Abu Seif · 1960
Synopsis
In Cairo, the father's death leaves his widow and their four children in hardship. Hassan, the eldest, slides into the criminal world. Hussein takes a modest job, far from the capital, so that the youngest, Hassanein, can enter military school. Nefissa, the daughter, whom the grocer's son refuses to marry, secretly begins to sell her body to support her family. Each of the children then takes a different path.
Context
The film was released on 31 October 1960, according to elCinema. Salah Ezzeddine wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Naguib Mahfouz, and according to al-Maarifa, Ahmed Choukri and Kamel Abdel Salam wrote the dialogue for Dinar Film, at the Galal studios. Omar Sharif plays Hassanein, Farid Chawqi Hassan, Sanaa Gamil Nefissa and Amina Rizk the mother. In Mexico, Arturo Ripstein brought the novel to the screen again in 1993.
Who it is for
A feature film in Arabic, of two hours ten, about a Cairo family, adapted from a great classic of Egyptian literature.
Prizes and reception
Seventh in the ranking of the hundred best Egyptian films; Sanaa Gamil was honoured at the Moscow festival in 1961.