BAB EL HADID (1958) | [aka...  باب الحديد - Cairo Station]

Written by:

Abdel Hay Adib

Youssef Chahine

Produced by:
Gabriel Talhami

Cinematography by:
Alevise Orfanelli

Editing by:
Kamal Abu El Ela

Original Music by:

Fouad Al Zahri

Genre:
Drama/Romance/Suspense

Production Company:
Gabriel Talhami Films

  At the main Cairo train station, people come together for only a fragment of time, whilst the lives of the luggage carriers, soda sellers, and various other railway workers intertwine around the station itself. These invisible persons who inhabit the abandoned train cars by night and melt into the crowd during the day, lend the station vibrancy and drama. Among them is the cripple Kinawi who is obsessed with the beautiful Hanuma, engaged to the muscular and virile leader of the luggage-carriers, Abu Sri. The lives of the three characters unfold through a series of interwoven and dramatic events against the backdrop of the timeless yet impermanent train station.

Farid Shawki
Hend Rostom
Youssef Chahine
Abdel Aziz Khalil
Naima Wasfy
Said Khalil
Abdel Ghani Nagdi
Loutfi El Hakim
Abdel Hamid Bodaoha
F. El Demerdache
Said El Araby
Ahmed Abaza
Hana Abdel Fattah
Safia Sarwat
Asaad Kellada
Sherine (II)
Soheir
Esmat Mahmoud
Nawal Morsi

. Marking a most powerful performance by the director, Youssef Chahine, as the cripple Kinawi, this film has become a pre-eminent classic of the Egyptian screen, unappreciated and undervalued at the time of its release. The film took while from its audience to recognize its uniqueness and became one of the most important films of our time.

. The first Chahine film to hit the Berlin Film Festival.

 Egypt - 90 min - 35MM - Black & white -  mono

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