Bab el-Hadid
Directed by:
Youssef ChahineCinematography:
Alevise OrfanelliComposer:
Fouad El-ZahryCast:
Farid Shawqi, Hind Rustum, Youssef Chahine, Abdel Aziz Khalil, Abdel Ghani Nagdi, Loufti El Hakim, Abdel Hamid Bodaoha, F. El Demerdache, Said El Araby (more)Plots(1)
Youssef Chahine directs and stars in this bittersweet, neo-realist drama about a crippled newspaper vendor who falls for a gorgeous lemonade seller. Qinawi (Chahine) is in love with Hanouma (Hind Rostom). But Hanouma is engaged to rugged station worker Abu-Serih (Farid Chawqi). As Abu-Serih attempts to unionize the station workers, Qinawi's fixation on Hanouma crosses the threshold from innocent crush to dangerous obsession. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
I must admit, I was quite surprised to learn that Egypt has its own film industry and that there are films, or at least one film, that are not bad at all. It contains elements of neorealism, but I felt like I was watching a film that also borrows elements from American film noir. The madness at the end is really beautifully captured.
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In its time and especially the country of origin (!), this was a very bold picture of the morbid obsession of a poor man at the Cairo train station, who becomes dangerously obsessed by a beautiful local girl. This is an eloquent film-noir about poverty, moral decline, and the changing societal ideologies in Egypt in the 1950s which must have been a thorn in the side of almost everyone, and so it was not appreciated until decades later. This was an interesting surprise for me. [KVIFF 2019]
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