This late-career work is one of Chahine’s better efforts—a largely engaging 12th-century epic about the dangers of religious extremism and the power that a humanist philosophy gives to its people.
Chahine’s first autobiographical film enthrals and flounders at the same time, featuring a young Egyptian man in love with acting and the movies, as WWII rages on nearby.
A meandering misfire from Chahine, this family conflict drama infused with superfluous sequences of song-and-dance fails to stir the senses in the way that his best works effortlessly do.
This is feisty if sometimes way too melodramatic filmmaking from Chahine as he pits poor and frustrated peasants against the rising tide of self-serving capitalism.
Chahine’s brisk and energetic work set in a railway station shows us characters who are forced to eke out a living, with the director himself brilliantly playing a psychologically unstable poor man who fantasises about being with the woman of his dreams.
This early work by the Egyptian master introduces us to the indelible Omar Sharif whose character gets caught up in a severe case of injustice as the wealthy exploits the poor in a rural village.
Eternality Tan 