Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Return of the Prodigal Son [عودة الابن الضال] (1976) - (dir: Youssef Chahine)

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1976) - (dir: Youssef Chahine) Egyptian one-sheet

This an original folded 27" x 39" Egyptian movie poster designed by Raouf for the 1976 Youssef Chahine film Return of the prodigal son freely adapted from the 1907 André Gide novel, produced in Egypt and Algeria with screenplay by Salah Jahine and Youssef Chahine and starring Ali Mahrez as Ali. Plot summary: "Return of the Prodigal Son is another Chahine parable set between the Arab-Israeli wars. An activist who's been jailed for more than a decade, Ali is eagerly awaited by his family. All hope that this just man will stand up against his ruthless brother's tyranny, but nobody even recognizes the prodigal when he shows up during a big party. Prison has so thoroughly crushed Ali's youth and idealism that he now allies himself with the oppressor." From the Cornell University Library web site. The film is a melodrama/musical centering on family strife in the Madbouli family heightened by the release of the family's youngest son from prison after serving ten years for construction fraud, who turns out to be a disappointment when he goes to work at his father's factory. The family lives on a farm headed by an authoritarian father [Mahmoud El-Meliguy]. The film has also been seen as an allegorical treatment of Egypt's poliitical disillusion following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970), who had been criticized by some as an authoritarian leader of a police state, too dependent on the power of his personal charisma and unable to create intermediary institutions or adopt practical programs for national development.

Cast and crew: Youssef Chahine, Salah Jahine, Farouk Beloufa, Raouf, Abdel Aziz Fahmy, Shukry Sarhan, Hoda Soltan, Ayda Reyad, Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Souheir El-Mourchidy, Ali El Scherif, Ali Mahrez, Sid Ali Kouiret, Ahmed Abdel Waress, Ragaa Hussein, Ahmed Bedir, Magda El-Roomy, Hesham Selim, André Gide





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