Cinema
Adrift on the Nile
ثرثرة فوق النيل
Hussein Kamal · 1971
Synopsis
Anis Zaki, a disillusioned employee of the Ministry of Health, can no longer bear the hypocrisy around him. Ragab, his former pupil, invites him onto a houseboat moored on the bank of the Nile, where a circle of intellectuals and people of all conditions gathers every evening: a lawyer, a journalist, a writer of short stories. There they smoke hashish and drink to forget the country and the war. Anis, whom the others consider a little mad, observes this circle and grows uneasy about it.
Context
The film was released on 15 November 1971, based on the novel Naguib Mahfouz had published in 1966, translated by Denoël in 1989. Mamdouh al-Laithy wrote the screenplay, Mostapha Emam did the cinematography and Rachida Abdel Salam the editing. Emad Hamdi plays Anis, Ahmed Ramzy Ragab, Magda al-Khatib Samara and Mervat Amine Sanaa. Poorly received on release, it was banned under Sadat, who thought it criticised the Nasser years.
Who it is for
A feature film of about two hours, in Arabic, based on a book translated into French under the same title.
Prizes and reception
Banned under Sadat and long ignored, it now appears in the ranking of the hundred best Egyptian films.