This is a 25" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Nagy Shaker for the
1999 Youssef Chahine film The Other written by Youssef Chahine
and Khaled Youssef and starring Hanan Turk as Hanane. Plot summary:
Adam [Hani Salama] is a student from a wealthy family who returns to
Cairo from New York for a break from his studies and a visit. During
his Cairo break Adam falls in love with Hanane, a journalist of modest
means who is conducting a campaign against the wealthy Egyptian elite
as they plunder the country. Adam's parents, who are themselves part
of the corrupt Egyptian upper class, and especially his mother
Margaret, [Nabila Ebeid] are opposed to the relationship between Adam
and Hanane.
Cast and crew: Youssef Chahine, Khaled Youssef, Nabila Ebeid,
Mahmoud Hemida, Hanan Turk, Hani Salama, Lebleba, Hassan Abdel Hamid,
Ezzat Abou Aouf, Ahmed Fouad Seli, Amr Saad, Ahmed Wafik, Edward Said,
Hamdine Sabahi, Tamer Samir
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Morteda Anise for the
1992 Ahmed Yehia film Samara the Prince based on a story by
Naguib Mahfouz and starring Nabila Ebeid as Shalabia/Samara. Plot
Summary: Shalabia, a beautiful country girl, moved from her village to
work as a maid in a pasha's palace in Alexandria. However she fell in
love with the pasha's opportunist driver Ali [Mahmoud Hemida] and made
the other maids jealous. One of them told the pasha about their
relationship so he would fire them both. He took advantage of the
opportunity to exploit his lover Shalabia in the acquisition of much
wealth for his illegitimate purposes. He swept her out with the trash
after using her as a dancer at the Al-Faramawy Nightclub and promising
to marry her while he was improving his financial situation. Shalabia
learned the art of dancing and changed her name to Samara the Prince
to increase her fame among the wealthy people who frequented the
nightclub. Her fans who showered her with wealth multiplied. They
included Marwan Amin the nationalist journalist, Mr. Faw the English
stockbroker and Mehdi Pasha, a prominent politician. When Samara the
Prince met the tax agent Omar Abdel Awi she found in him a life
partner and married him hoping to begin an honorable life without
depravity. She tried to quit the night life but her first lover Ali
refused to allow this because he wanted to keep stealing her money.
Ali decided she had to return to her work as a dancer. Her husband
Omar negotiated for a divorce in return for a sum of money but when
Ali failed to win the argument with Omar he killed him to punish
Samara.
Cast and crew: Naguib Mahfouz, Ahmed Yehia, Wahid Seif, Youseff
Daoud, Abdel Salam Mohamed, Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Hamdy Ghayth, Nabila
Ebeid, Mahmoud Hemida, Ramses Marzouk, Mostafa Moharram, Mohammad
Tawfik, Sanaa Shafei, Ahmad Mostafa, Umran Bahar, Howeida Omran, Ahmed
Abu Abih, Osman Al-Hamamsi
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster by an unknown designer for the
1991 Mohamed Khan film The Knight of the City AKA fares
al-medina based on a story by Mohamed Khan with screenplay and
dialogue by Fayez Ghaly and starring Mahmoud Hemida as Fares. Plot
Summary: The film is set in Cairo in the year 1988. The filming was
done in 32 days beginning 26 May 1990. It tells a complex story about
the life of Fares Hassan al-Helali, a prosperous and somewhat
conniving mid-level businessman dealing in currency, automobiles and
real estate. His wealth comes from currency trading and the running
of a number of large commercial projects. The main line of this
multi-threaded plot is a conflict between Fares and another slightly
more prosperous businessman and drug merchant Ahmed Al-Wezzan [Abdel
Aziz Makhyoun]. As the film begins Fares worries how he will raise the
five million pounds he needs to pay a debt to Ahmed. He ends up
selling everything to manage it, but in the end it is Fares who
triumphs in a series of tense and sometimes violent encounters.
In the beginning Fares quarrels with his ex wife Dalal [Soad Nasr]
about their son [Abdel Aziz al-Qarantili]. He had separated from
Dalal to live with her son Bakr [Farid Naguib Sorur], a university
student, and with his new lover. This is the start of another plot
line in which the son is kidnapped by Ahmed's gang, disappears,
eventually becomes addicted to drugs and is then found using them and
beaten up by Fares in a public bathroom.
In the beginning Fares quarrels with his ex wife Dalal [Soad Nasr]
about their son [Abdel Aziz al-Qarantili]. He had separated from
Dalal to live with her son Bakr [Farid Naguib Sorur], a university
student, and with his new lover. This is the start of another plot
line in which the son is kidnapped by Ahmed's gang, disappears,
eventually becomes addicted to drugs and is then found using them and
beaten up by Fares in a public bathroom.
In a moment of despair, after having lost everything to Ahmed,
Fares hits an elderly pedestrian with his car and then takes him to a
big hospital, checks him in as his own father and pays for his
treatment. Although Fares does not know at first, the old man is in
the habit of throwing himself in front of fancy automobiles so he can
live comfortably for a while in a big hospital. Fares and the old
opportunist find a bond of some kind and eventually become drinking
buddies, replicating in a superficial way the false identities of
father and son, an idea the elderly man had first broached to Fares
while he was checking his "victim" into a hospital.
Soon after they establish the new bond of trust the old man
confesses to Fares with startling honesty his fraudulent practice of
fake victimhood. He recounts his specific encounter with Fares in
detail, and explains how he had sized him up and set out to dupe him.
Fares accepts this with equanimity and they remain friends. In this
moment of candor with the old man, Fares also tells the nurse in
attendance Hoda [Lucy] the story of their contrived relationship,
makes a date to meet her and begins a relationship with her.
There is much freeway footage in and around Cairo by
cinematographer Kamal Abdel Aziz as well as multiple insertions of
original cuts from old Om Kolsum performances to illustrate the
fondness Fares has for her music and sometimes to accentuate points in
the story line with her lyrics.
Cast and crew: Mahmoud Hemida, Mohamed Khan, Aida Riad, Soad Nasr,
Abdel Aziz Makhyoun, Hassan Hosny, Ahmed Bedir, Fayez Ghaly, Kamal
Abdel Aziz, Lucy, Osman Abdel Moneim, Mohamed Metwalli, Atia Oweysi,
Lotfi Labieb, Khaled El Sawy, Mahmoud Al-Lawzi, Abdel Aziz
al-Qarantili, Farid Naguib Sorur
Pictured is a 25.25" x 36.5" Egyptian poster designed to promote the
1992 111-minute Nader Galal color film Wickedness [al-shariss]
starring Youssra based on story, screenplay and dialogue by Magdy
Hidaya with cinematography by Samir Farag. Plot summary: This is a
police/gangland movie set in the Port of Alexandria. Three siblings
lived in Alexandria. The first one Hamam [Mahmoud Hemida] was the
leader of a gang of drug dealers operating under the cover of a
shipping office inside the port. He succeeded in recruiting his
little brother Khamis [Mahmoud El Guindi] for the narcotics trade, but
their sister Fatma [Youssra] refused to engage in this illicit
activity. She objected to their criminal trade and remained a simple
sales worker at a clothing store. Fatma had a love relationship with Mansour
[Youssef Mansour], a friend to her brother Khamis, but he was away
from the neighborhood for many years; when he returned they renewed
their relationship and decided to marry. The return of Mansour and his
emotional tie with Fatma are a central part of the film's early
development. Al-Agrudy [Nour El-Demerdash], a narcotics dealer in
competiton with Hamam, wanted to marry Fatma, but she refused him.
During an argument with Hamam he killed Zein [Ashraf Abdel Baqi], one
of Hamam's agents; Khamis took revenge by killing three members of
Al-Agrudy's gang. Al-Agrudy demanded that Hamam kill his brother
Khamis, but Hamam just made his brother apologize to Al-Agrudy.
Mansour, an athletic man skilled in shooting and the martial arts who
had been absent for a considerable period engaged in unknown activity,
then emerged as a police agent charged with purging the Port of
Alexandria of narcotics gangs; he asked Fatma to help him with his
secret mission. Hamam shot his brother Khamis, who died later in a
hospital. Fatma was heartbroken and furious with her brother Hamam.
Hamam was then killed in a confrontation by Al-Agrudy as Fatma
watched. Then Mansour took on Al-Agrudy's gang in a heroic
one-against-many fight; just as Al-Agrudy was about to shoot Mansour,
Fatma shot and killed him, thus completing the purge of the Port of
Alexandria. Youssra gets top billing on the poster for this film and
she deserves it. She holds the film together.
Cast and crew: Nader Galal, Youssra, Mahmoud Hemida, Mahmoud El Guindi, Youssef Mansour, Nour El-Demerdash, Ashraf Abdel Baqi, Mohamed Dia, Samir Farag, Magdy Hidaya, Othman Abdul Menem, Ahmed Abo Abeya, Diaa El-Merghani, Sayed Hatem, Khaled Youssef, Fekri Sadeq, Abir Adel
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Morteda
Anis to promote the 1995 92-minute Mohamed Khan color film A Very
Hot Day starring Sherihan based on a story by Mohamed Khan with
screenplay by Zeinab Aziz and cinematography by Kamal Abdel Aziz.
Plot summary: This film tells the story of the discovery of an
unsuspected betrayal in an Egyptian marriage. Gharib returned to
Egypt for a short vacation in Cairo after being away for eight years.
On that very hot day while he was talking with a friend on a public
telephone he saw a pretty girl have her bag stolen. Gharib chased the
thief and got the bag, but then could not not find the girl. He found
her name and number inside the bag. He called the number and a
businessman named Dia answered the call. Dia believed Gharib was
someone with whom he had made an agreement to kill his wife Hoda; this
was because Dia had exposed himself to a huge financial obligation and
his wife was refusing to help him. Dia gave Gharib his home address
and the key to his apartment so he could do the job. Gharib followed
Hoda to tell her he was supposed to kill her by agreement with her
husband, and an instant bond of affection was established between
them. Dia contacted his wife to express regret but his wife refused
his apology and decided to leave him. She left the marriage home to
go with Gharib on a journey to change the direction of their lives
forever.
This is a picture of a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by al-Khad to
promote the 1991 133-minute Samir Seif color film Shams
al-Zanati starring Adel Imam based on the 1960 John Sturges
film The Magnificent Seven with story, screenplay and dialogue
by Magdy Hidaya and cinematography by Samir Farag. Plot summary: Shams
al-Zanati [Adel Imam] was an Egyptian rebel who fought British
forces in Egypt during the Second World War. The film depicts Shams
al-Zanati's love for and eventual marriage to a young Bedouin widow
named Hanna [Sausan Badr], which begins while Hanna is working in a
Cairo coffee shop and helping Shams al-Zanati evade British agents.
The marriage takes place in Hanna's oasis village after a bloody
shootout there between Shams al-Zanati's insurgent gang and another
gang led by Marshall Borei.
Cast and crew: Adel Imam, Mahmoud Hemida, Sawsan Badr, Samir Seif, Mustafa Metwalli, Abdulla Mahmoud, Ibrahim Nasr, Noha El Amroussi, Mahmoud El Guindi, Rushdi El Mahdi, Ahmed Maher, Said Tarabeek, Magdy Hidaya, Ali Abdel Rahim
Pictured is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Hassan Mazhar
Gasour to promote the 1990 108-minute Hussein Kamal color film Drug
Users [al-masatil المساطيل] starring Laila Eloui based on story, screenplay
and dialogue by Wahid Hamid with cinematography by Ibrahim Saleh.
Plot summary: A group of lost youth were involved in drug abuse and
crime and they had committed a murder. Nadia [Lalia Eloui] was the
most prominent among them. She was in love with Samir but he refused
to marry her because she was too poor. She had to go away to marry a
rich man, but it only lasted three months, and when she returned she
found her father had lost his job, and she had also lost hers. She
took up prostitution and began associating with a bad group of people
who would use drugs together to forget the miserable realities of
their lives. Among these people was the sexually impotent Ahmad, who
believed drugs might cure him. Another was Talaat, a corrupt court
worker who illegitimately sold judicial documents. There was also an
unemployed man named Abbas who had married a wealthy cafe owner and
then killed her to get her money. Samir was unable to find happiness
with his wife, whom he did not love, so he broke into the gathering of
drug users to be with Nadia, whom he did love, but he refused to tell
them his story. They forced him to take an overdose of heroin, which
killed him; then they they threw his body into the Nile. Nadia
confessed to the police she had been with the drug users and had been
responsible for Samir's death.
Cast and crew: Hussein Kamal, Negah El-Mogui, Hassan Hosny, Ahmed Maher, Soad Hussein, Mahmoud Hemida, Laila Eloui, Ibrahim Saleh, Wahid Hamid, Hendia, Soad Hussein
Shown here is a 27.5" x 39.25" Egyptian poster designed by Morteda to
promote the 1993 117-minute Inas Al Degheidy color
film Lace [dentelle] starring Youssra based on a story by Hala
Sarhan, screenplay and dialogue by Rafiq As-Sabban, Inas Al Degheidi
and Mostafa Moharram and cinematography by Maher Rady. Plot summary: A
little rich girl named Maryam (Ilham Shaheen) was about to drown in
the ocean but a poor little girl named Sahar al-Layali (Youssra) saved
her; this became the foundation of a firm friendship which continued
until Maryam grew up and became an attorney. Sahar al-Layali went from
singing popular youth songs at weddings, then at circuses and then in
cabarets. She sang well enough that she became a radio singer, but
when she hit someone with her fast automobile Maryam came to rescue
her at the police station. There they met a police officer named
Hossam (Mahmoud Hemida). They all three fell in love and became a tight threesome.
Then Maryam, seeing that they were in love, left Sahar al-Layali and
Hossam to go their own way. She decided to marry a businessman named
Wagdi and went to live with him in Canada. Hossam was hurt by
Maryam's departure but he married Sahar al-Layali. Maryam's marriage
failed, and after three months she got a divorce and went back to
Cairo. Then Hossam and Maryam got married too after a long
hesitation, with the consent of Sahar al-Layali. He divided his
time between them according to a timetable, but this undermined
Maryam's working life; she lost an important case and her client was
condemned to death. Hossam neglected his job for a month, Sahar
al-Layali was fired from the hotel where she was singing, their
beautiful friendship was lost and problems overtook their lives.
Maryam got pregnant and Sahar discovered she was sterile. She got
into an automobile accident and miraculously escaped death. Hossam
decided to divorce Maryam and Sahar al-Layali so he could go back to
being friends with both of them without any more quarreling, but
Maryam had a baby girl and decided to raise her without any contact
with the father! The soundtrack includes a brief audio clip of Joe Cocker singing Randy Newman's "I Know What Love Is."
Cast and crew: Inas Al Degheidy, Mahmoud Hemida, Ilham Shaheen, Youssra, Mahmoud Kabil, Maher Rady, Hala Sarhan, Rafiq As-Sabban, Mostafa Moharram, Ezzat El-Meshad, Sayed Gabr, Lidia, Amru Youssri
This is a 26.5" x 38.5" Egyptian poster designed by Focus to
promote the 2004 Ooussama Fawzi film I Love the Cinema [baheb
al-sima بحب السيما] starring Youssef Osman as Na'eem based on a story by Hani Fawzi with
cinematography by Tarek El-Telmisany. This is a controversial film
narrated by Sherif Mounir as the voice of 40-year-old Na'eem
as he recalls his childhood years. The story is about a Coptic family in
1960s Shubra in the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser's presidency; it pushes
a number of religious, sexual and ethical boundaries as Na'eem remembers conflicts with a father
who assured him his love of film would surely lead to his eternal
damnation. Some Copts in Egypt were offended by what they saw as a
tendency to ridicule Christianity and they tried through legal action
to prevent it being shown.
The Drowned Woman [al-gharqana] Egyptian film poster
This is a 26.75" x 38.75" Egyptian poster designed by Morteda to
promote the 92-minute Mohamed Khan color film The Drowned Woman
[al-gharqana] starring Nabila Ebeid as Warda based on screenplay and
dialogue by Mostafa Moharram and a story by Hassan Shah, with
cinematography by Mohsen Nasr. Plot summary: In a village on the
southern coast of the Sinai the pretty Bedouin woman Wafa was in
heartbreak and pain because she had become a widow to three husbands.
People were accusing her of being bad luck for men! Warda went to see
the village sorcerer, a swindler and a quack, to ask him how to break
the spell. He persuaded her to marry him and told her this would
purge the curse. She agreed to the marriage and gave birth to a
deformed midget, whom the father named Mabruk. The father attributed
miracles to him and accumulated much wealth by using simple devices to
promote superstition and quackery. Warda started supprting herself as
a dancer in a tourist village. Then Mabruk drowned while playing in
the sea in his parents' absence; the local women told the sorcerer his
wife had caused it, so he drowned her too. The sorcerer then went
back to swindling the villagers with the help of a local assistant,
who claimed Mabruk's soul had dissolved into the body of his father!
Cast and crew: Mohamed Khan, Mostafa Moharram, Nabila Ebeid, Mahmoud Hemida, Ahmad Tawfiq, Hassan Shah, Mostafa Moharram, Mohsen Nasr, Nahla Salama, Hamdi Al Wazir, Abir Al-Saghir, Ayman Ahmad, Ali Hassanein, Mohamed Sabri, Ahlam Khaled, Nahla Salama
Pictured is a promotional poster designed by Morteda Anise for the
1991 120-minute color film Woman Marked for Destruction [emraa
ayla lel soqut] written and directed by Medhat El-Sebaiy and starring
Youssra as Ahlam based on a story taken from court cases, with
cinematography by Tarek El-Telmisany. Plot summary: Poverty drove
Ahlam to the commission of illegal acts for which she was never
arrested such as swindling, theft and prostitution; she formed a
professional gang with two clever thieves named Mohsen [Mohamed Kamel]
and Sharif [Ramzi Gheith]. Ahlam fell in love with Shukry, [Mahmoud
Hemida] a novice journalist and they dreamed together about wealth and
freedom. Then she dumped him for a wealthy man who refused to marry
her after seducing her. She was passed from one man to another and
became a whore. She was imprisoned on false testimony; after her
release she married a waiter named Hamdy [Abdel Aziz Makhyoun] at a
nightclub where she worked, but then she discovered he was addicted to
heroin. The owner of the house raped her in front of her husband, but
he made no move to save her. The thieves Mohsen and Sharif broke into
a wealthy woman's villa, stole her jewels and killed her and her son.
Her young daughter Abir [Amira Ibrahim] saw them and ran away. The
thieves hid the stolen jewels in Ahlam's apartment but the police
arrested the three of them. Ahlam was sentenced to death because the
evidence of the crime was found in her apartment. Ahlam's former
fiancee Shukry came to her defense and went looking for Abir, the only
witness who could save Ahlam from the noose.
Cast and crew: Medhat El-Sebaiy, Farid Shawqi, Youssra, Hoda Soltan, Mohsen Sarhan, Abdel Aziz Makhyoun, Mahmoud Hemida, Salah Kabil, Ragaa Hussein, Seif Abdel Rahman, Seif El Dine, Mohamed Kamel, Mohamed Wafik, Tarek El-Telmisany, Mohammad Rafiq, Mohsen Sarhan, Mahmood Massood, Zeinab Wahbi, Shadia Abdel Hamid, Sayed Sadek, Mufid Ashour, Ibrahim Mabruk, Anwar Abdel Aziz, Mervat Hafez, Amira Ibrahim, Mostafa Ibrahim
Pictured is a somewhat worn 27" x 39" promotional poster for the 1994
Youssef Chahine 120-minute color film The Emigrant [al-mohager] with
screenplay and dialogue by Youssef Chahine, poster art by Jan and
cinematography by Ramses Marzouk. Plot summary: Ram [Khaled Nabawy]
lived with his old father [Michel Piccoli] in a poor tribe outside
Egypt. Ram suffered from an unhappy dislike of his position as the
favorite of his father's seven sons; he refused to accept that
situation or to live in fear of drought, famine and flood. He dreamed
of being in control of his own life and of his tribe being prosperous.
He decided to go to Egypt to learn agriculture and to make use of
other areas of knowledge found in Egyptian civilization. His brothers
tied him up and threw him into the hold of a ship bound for Egypt,
believing they had gotten rid of him forever, but Ram made it to Egypt
and began learning agriculture. There he discovered the Egyptians were
more interested in the arts and embalming. Ram met Amihar, [Mahmoud
Hemida] the leader of the Egyptian armies. Amihar was impotent
despite his physical strength and was unable to satisfy his wife
Simihit [Youssra] after she fell in love with him. Amihar gave Ram a
plot of land to farm. Ram fell in love with a pretty Egyptian girl
named Haty [Hanan Turk] who said she would marry him. The two of them
joined with an Egyptian minister farming the new land; they
successfully cultivated the plot from Amihar. They divided the crop
to help alleviate the famine that was threatening Egypt and Ram became
a minister in the Pharaoh's government. Nonetheless he longed to
return to his country after disclosing his identity to his seven
brothers; he returned to his tribe with his wife, where he met with
his father after long years of absence. He found his father had gone
blind crying so much in the belief he had died, as his lying brothers
had claimed. This film was banned by religious authorities in Egypt in
1994 and 1995, both times for violating Islamic strictures against
depicting religious prophets--in this case the Prophet Joseph. After
the ban was lifted The Emigrant became Chahine's most popular
film.
Cast and crew: Youssef Chahine, Khaled el Nabaoui, Ahmed Bedir, Safia El Emari, Mahmoud Hemida, Yousef Ismail, Khaled Nabawy, Michel Piccoli, Ahmad Salama, Hanan Turk, Youssra, Ramses Marzouk, Menaha al-Batrawy, Sayed Abdel Karim, Amru Abdel Khalil, Ahmed Fouad Selim, Pierre Sioufi
Alexandria-New York (1004) - (dir: Youssef Chahine) Egyptian film poster
This film, which among other things represents Chahine's mixed
feelings about the United States, won 6 awards at the Egyptian Film
Society Festival, including Best Director, Best Makeup, Best Poster,
Best Coming Actor (Ahmed Yehia), Best Actress
(Yousra El Lozy), and Best Actor (Mahmoud Hemeda). It was also voted
best film of the year 2004 in a readers poll conducted by the
newspaper Al-Ahram.
Plot Summary from IMDB: "Egyptian film director Yehia encounters his
first love Ginger as he was being celebrated in New York. Back then
they were 19 years old. The American Dream was the thing of the 20th
century. Yehia, the boy from Alexandria, and Ginger, the American gal,
were students at Pasadena Playhouse.40 years later, they are back
together but the world has changed and the American Dream is no longer
what it used to be. Yehia finds out that he had begotten an American
child, a boy. Through a boisterous epic in which heroes love, sing,
dance, laugh and cry, Youssef Chahine reconsiders his past and his
ambiguous relationship to America which he loved so much. Written by
www.YoussefChahine.us"
Cast and Crew: Youssef Chahine, Mahmoud Hemida, Ahmed Yehia, Youssra, Yousra El Lozy, Lebleba, Hala Sedki, Magda El-Khatib, Nelly Karim,Mohamed Hasabo, Sanaa Younes, Soad Nasr, Yousra Selim, Mahmoud Saad, Mahmoud El Lozy, Hamdy El Sakhawy
Summons to Obey [anzar bil-ta'a] (1993) - (Laila Eloui) Egyptian movie poster
Amina, a pretty university student, was from a poor family in a lower-class neighborhood; while studying she had to work as a sales girl in a commercial shop. She loved her neighbor Ibrahim the attorney. They were too poor to marry so they had sexual liaisons. Amina lost her virginity. Ibrahim declared a desire to marry, but Amina's mother refused to allow this, especially since the rich boy Salah wanted to marry Amina to get the family out of the cycle of poverty in which they had lived for many years. Although Amina hated Salah and loved Ibrahim, she had to agree to marry Salah to please her powerful mother, who also dominated the father. Ibrahim had to reconcile himself to his beloved Amina's acceptance of the idea of marrying another, just as he also had to accept the imprisonment of his two friends of Ashraf and Tareq. He decided to leave Egypt with his friend Aziz. However he dissevered he could not do this because his love for Amina was too deep, as was the intensity of his attachment to his country. He started legal action to demand obedience from Amina even though he was not officially married to her. Ibrahim tried to prove the depth of his sexual relationship with Amina to emphasize his right to marry her, even though he created a scandal in front of the family and the people of the neighborhood. The case failed, but Amina confessed to her father the truth about her relationship with Ibrahim so he would agree to her marriage with him; this prevented a scandal and brought the lovers back together.
Visit the Movie Poster Page!
Cast and crew: Laila Eloui, Mahmoud Hemida, Atef E-Taieb, Mamdouh Wafi, Achraf Abdel Baqi, Lamia El Amir
Fares of the City [fares al-medina] (1992) - (Mahmoud Hemida) Egyptian film poster
Plot Summary: This film by director Mohamed Khan is set in Cairo in the year 1988. The filming was done in 32 days beginning 26 May 1990. It narrates a complex tale about the life of Fares (Mahmoud Hemida) who is a prosperous and somewhat conniving mid-level businessman dealing in currency, automobiles and real estate. His wealth comes from currency trading and the running of a number of large commercial projects. The main line of this multi-threaded plot is a conflict between Fares and another slightly more properous businessman and drug merchant Ahmed Al-Wezzan (Abdel Aziz Makhyoun). As the film begins Fares worries how he will raise the five million pounds he needs to pay a debt to Ahmed and he ends up selling everything to manage it, but in the end it is Fares who triumphs in a series of tense and sometimes violent encounters.
When the story begins Fares is quarrelling with his wife Dalal (Soad Nasr) about their son (Abdel Aziz al-Qarantili). He had separated from Dalal to live with her son Bakr (Farid Naguib Sorur), a university student, and with his new lover. This is the beginning of another plot line in which the son is kidnapped by Ahmed's gang, disappears, eventually becomes addicted to drugs and is then found using them and beaten up by Fares in a public bathroom.
In a moment of despair, after having lost everything to Ahmed Fares hits an ederly pedestrian with his car and then takes him to a big hospital to treat him at his own expense. Although Fares does not know this at first, this old man makes a habit of throwing himself in front of fancy automobiles so he can live comfortably for a while in a big hospital. Fares and the old opportunist find a bond of some kind and eventually become drinking buddies, replicating in a superfical way the false identities of father and son, an idea the elderly man had first broached to Fares while he was checking his "victim" into a hospital.
Soon after they establish this new bond of trust the old man confesses to Fares with startling honesty his habitual strategy of becoming a fake victim in traffic accidents to get periods of free hospital room and board for himself. He recounts his specific encounter with Fares in detail, and explains how he had sized him up and intentionaly set out to dupe him. Fares accepts this with equanimity and they remain friends. In this moment of candor with the old man, Fares also tells the nurse in attendance Hoda (Lucy) the story of their contrived relationship, makes a date to meet her and begins a relationship with her.
This film is full of freeway footage in and around Cairo by cinematographer Kamal Abdel Aziz, with frequent insertion of original cuts from old Om Kolsum performances to illustrate the fondness Fares has for her music and sometimes to accentuate points in the story line with her lyrics.
The film's performers are Mahmoud Hemida, Aida Riad, Soad Nasr, Abdel Aziz Makhyoun, Hassan Hosny, Ahmed Bedir, Lucy, Osman Abdel Moneim, Mohamed Metwalli, Atia Oweysi, Lotfi Labieb, Khaled El Sawy, Mahmoud Al-Lawzi, Abdel Aziz al-Qarantili and Farid Naguib Sorur.
