Knight of the City (1992) - (Mahmoud Hemida) Egyptian one-sheet
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
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