Feature film
المصيدة
Wadi Youssef · 1980
Synopsis
In an old house in Damascus, Ferial, the daughter of a porter, has left school to help her sick mother. Samir, her neighbour and childhood friend, a glassmaker, loves her and leaves to work in Kuwait so that he can marry her. His father dies, killed in a brawl, and the authorities refuse any compensation. Ferial becomes a nurse for Tarif, a young seductive gynaecologist, who draws her into his evenings. There she meets Khaled Bey, a businessman who is the doctor's partner in building contracts.
Context
Produced by the state body in the early eighties, in colour and running about a hundred minutes, from a story by Ali Oqla Orsan, a playwright who long presided over the writers' union. The credits roll over views of the alleys of the old city, to music by Souheil Arafa. The film attacks corruption, but through individuals and without touching the system. Samar Sami, Oussama Khalqi, Abdelhadi Sabbagh and Saad al-Din Baqdounis play the main roles.
Who it is for
A social drama in Arabic, slow in pace, carried by its lead actress; it can be followed without preparation.
Prizes and reception
A press article says it stayed on the bill at a Damascus cinema for ten weeks; one critic disputes this success and finds the plot weak, but praises Samar Sami's performance.