Egyptian and Arab cinema

For half a century Cairo was the Hollywood of the Arab world: studios, stars, songs, and films exported from Morocco to Iraq. Chahine shot there a crowded station where a lame newspaper seller loses his mind out of jealousy, Salah Abu Seif set social melodrama in working-class districts, Barakat adapted a novel about an accused peasant woman. Alongside that industry, Chadi Abdel Salam filmed in 1969 the looting of pharaonic tombs in classical Arabic and at the pace of a prayer.

works 5

• CinemaThe ToughالفتوةSalah Abu Seif · 1957A peasant who has come up to Cairo learns the law of a vegetable market and the ways of those who control it.Cinema
• CinemaCairo Stationباب الحديدYoussef Chahine · 1958A crippled newspaper seller, a drinks seller and the crowd of a great railway station.Cinema
• CinemaThe SinالحرامHenry Barakat · 1965A farm day labourer, a sick husband, and a violence she hides from everyone.Cinema
• CinemaThe Night of Counting the YearsالمومياءShadi Abdel Salam · 1969The son of a tribal chief discovers that his people have always lived off the looting of a royal cache.Cinema
• CinemaThe DupesالمخدوعونTawfik Saleh · 1972Three Palestinian refugees and a smuggler, in the furnace of the desert, on the road to a dreamed-of Kuwait.Cinema