Cinema
Three on the Road
ثلاثة على الطريق
Mohamed al-Qaliouby · 1993
Synopsis
Mahmoud, a lorry driver, has to get from Luxor to Tanta in two days. On the way, he picks up two passengers: Khalil, a boy fleeing his stepmother's harshness to join his mother in Tanta, and Tahia, whom he is to drop off at a friend's. As the journey goes on, the three travellers find themselves caught up, according to the Rotterdam festival, in the political and religious tensions of the south of the country, and al-Ain mentions an arrest and political accusations.
Context
The first feature-length fiction film by its author, the film was shown at the Rotterdam festival in 1993. Mahmoud Abdel Aziz plays the driver. According to the festival, the story blends fiction with a documentary manner and meets along the way the violence then striking the Copts of the south. Al-Ain writes that it “announced emphatically a different director”, and it received a special jury prize at the Paris Biennale of Arab Cinema in 1994.
Who it is for
A feature film in Arabic, a road story over two days, which mixes fiction and documentary observation.
Prizes and reception
Presented at Rotterdam in the year of its release, then honoured in Paris in 1994.
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