Social change is integral to cinema. Whether in the case of a radical, rapid change or long-term evolution, filmmakers like to stress the negative aspects of the transformation. The boldness of digging deep into, or criticising aspects is in fact a cinematic aesthetic.
This year in Egypt films by and large left social issues to TV series such as Lam Shamsiya, directed by Karim Al-Shennawi, and Ward wa Shokolata, directed by Mohamed Al-Adl. Both tackled matters of public opinion that had generated debate. Cinema invested rather in entertainment. The comedy Siko Siko, directed by Omar Fouad Al-Mohandes, for example, capitalised on the popularity of actors who had made their names in TV shows of previous years: Essam Omar and Taha Dessouki. There was also a romantic comedy, Feeha Eh Yaani, directed by Omar Rushdi Hamed. Action films such as Project X, directed by Peter Mimi and starring Karim Abdel-Aziz, or action comedies such as Ahmed & Ahmed, directed by Ahmed Nader Galal and starring Ahmed Fahmi and Ahmed Al-Saqqa, were also made.
Exactly half a century ago, by contrast, social transformation was at the heart of Egyptian film. In 1975, Egypt was trying to overcome an economic slump resulting from years of war with Israel since the defeat of 1967, after which resources were directed to rebuilding the army in preparation for what would be the victory of 1973. President Anwar Al-Sadat was, meanwhile, adopting a strategy radically different from his predecessor, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who passed away in 1970, his belief being that the US “holds 99 per cent of the cards in the Middle East”. He thought of moving towards not only normalising relations with the US and eventually Israel but also transitioning the society from a centralised one-party to a Western-style liberal system.
1975 was significant. It was five years after the death of Nasser, or perhaps the actual end of Nasser’s Arabic Socialist project. (Of course, the beginning of the end of this project was the 1967 war.) 1975 saw the opening of the Suez Canal for maritime navigation after eight years of closure due to Middle East wars. After the victory of the 1973 War, Sadat adopted the open economic policy. He started this process by announcing the October Working Paper in 1974. The paper discussed mainly political and economic strategy, and the radical changes it announced were accompanied by similar developments in the artistic arena. Several filmmakers thought of widening the space of freedom and making films that engage with the problems of Egyptian society, or offer criticism of some of its negative aspects.
***
Fifty years ago, when filmmakers were intrigued by the theme of economic and social corruption, the iconic film Al-Mozneboon (The Guilty), directed by Said Marzouk, captured the spirit of the times. Written directly for the screen by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, it was made into a screenplay by Mamdouh Al-Leithi. It opens with the murder of an actress, Sanaa Kamel (Soheir Ramzi), after an extravagant party that gathered together high-profile figures. The drama revolves around the police detective (Omar Al-Hariri) and his assistant (Said Abdel-Ghani) questioning various characters.
The filmmaker uses these conversations to reveal in a flashback how each of the party guests has an alibi for the homicide, which took place between 2:00 and 3:00am. Each suspect’s story reveals another crime that underlines an aspect of corruption in society, demonstrating that they were committing some other crime when the actress was killed. For example, the school master Alif Al-Bahrawi (Emad Hamdi), who was newly introduced to the actress and was invited to the party, was at the school fetching a copy of the high school final exam so that he could leak it to some students’ families for a generous sum. The state-owned supermarket manager, Fahmi (Tawfik Al-Deken), was selling subsidised commodities on the black market. Tahsin (Youssef Shaaban), a gynaecologist, was performing illegal abortions in his clinic. Mamdouh (Adel Adham) is a safe cracker who happened to be breaking into a well-known company. Hafez (Salah Zulfikar) is a head of a public sector construction company who has managed to seduce Mona (Zebeida Tharwat), Tahsin’s wife, and was spending the night with her.
Sanaa’s friends represent most professional types: education, health, food supplies, construction, and even the state official, a secret service man (played by Kamal Al-Shinnawi). The script presented the latter timidly as one of Sanaa’s lovers who secretly and mysteriously enters her house and goes upstairs to her bedroom without joining the party. In bed, he tells her he doesn’t like her to invite people over when they have a date. What is interesting in the film is that he is not called for questioning, and no explanation is given in the script. But it remains a courageous reference to the corruption of such a character, in context. At the end of the film, it turns out the killer is Sanaa’s fiancé (Hussein Fahmi), a son of the old aristocratic class. He loves her and turns a blind eye to her affairs, but when he sees the secret service man coming out of her bedroom, he cannot withstand his anger. The flashback of his story reveals that a secret service man was among those who confiscated his family’s wealth.
***
Another 1975 film that also tackles economic and social corruption in Egyptian society is Ala Man Notlek Al-Rosas (Whom Should We Shoot), directed by Kamal Al-Sheikh. The script, which was written by Raafat Al-Mihi, is also built on interrogations done by Adel (Ezzat Al-Alayli), the deputy prosecutor, using flashback sequences to reveal the details of the tragedy that led to the first scene in which Mustafa (Mahmoud Yassin) shoots Rushdi (Gamil Rateb), chairman of the board of one of the public sector companies responsible for public housing. After the shooting, he flees and is hit by a car. The drama focuses on the fate of both victim and shooter who are taken to hospital in the same ambulance.
The film slowly reveals the relationship between the killer and Tahani (Soad Hosni), Rushdi’s wife, a former secretary at Rushdi’s office. At the time, she was engaged to Sami (Magdi Wahba), one of the civil engineers in the same company. Sami is a close friend of Mustafa, and it’s clear the three are inseparable. Mustafa’s personality comes through in two ways. First, the security archive shows that he was arrested for his political activities twice: in 1964 and after the defeat of 1967, when he took part in the demonstrations demanding the trial of those responsible. After his release, he suffers a mental imbalance. Secondly, his Marxist convictions come across when all three friends discuss money matters; they are angry. At this point it is clear that, while Tahani and her fiancé dream of a better future for themselves, Mustafa’s ambition extends to all of society.
The turning point is when the buildings in a housing project collapse, causing human casualties. Rushdi and the company hold Sami accountable for the disaster and send him to court; he is sentenced to prison, where he is killed, conspired against by Rushdi who knows he might expose his corruption. Al-Sheikh typically blends political critique with thriller suspense, keeping the audience on tiptoe till the very last scene.
***
An even better-known film – one of the most controversial of all time – is Al-Karnak, directed by Ali Badrakhan and written by Mamdouh Al-Leithy, based on Naguib Mahfouz’s eponymous novel, written in 1970-71 but not published until 1974 when Nasser’s successor Sadat allowed criticism of the previous era. It tackles the police state through a group of young medical students at Cairo University. Ismail (Nour Al-Sherif), Zeinab (Soad Hosni) – Ismail’s fiancée – and Helmi (Mohamed Sobhi), all of whom live in poor neighborhoods and gather at Al-Karnak café, owned by a retired dancer emotionally attached to Helmi, Oronfola (Showikar). The drama develops when Khaled Safwan (Kamal Al-Shinnawi), a high-ranking officer in the security apparatus, has those students arrested along with other activists. Helmi dies under torture, Ismail breaks down, and Zeinab is raped in the course of an interrogation.
In the first sequence of the film Ismail, now a doctor suffering from depression and alcoholism, hears the news of the October War at the café from the radio, pulls himself together and volunteers. Ismail and Zeinab have barely survived, but Safwan is tried and the October victory offers some kind of compensation.
Both the novel and the film were attacked by Nasserist intellectuals, who saw it as anti-Nasser propaganda distorting the achievements of Nasser’s socialist and national liberation movement and justifying Sadat’s betrayal of the cause. It was said to open the door to what became known as Karnakism, a mode of drama in which the practices of the intelligence service under Nasser were exposed.
Cinema has always been the mirror of society, seeking out the stories of ordinary citizens, rearranging and rewriting them to create an alternative, attractive and beautiful narrative appealing not only to members of the society in questions but others all over the world. The 1970s were an overwhelming period in Egypt. They witnessed huge change with Nasser’s death, the October victory, and the start of “Open Door” economics, which affected the social structure in Egypt. Fifty years on, filmmakers may be waiting for the opportunity to create similarly courageous responses to the huge changes of the last decade, which may be as important as what happened half a century ago.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: