Director: Henry Barakat Year: 1955 Rating: 7.5 Country:
Egypt
Last week I watched my first film from Egypt and enjoyed it so much that
I ordered a few more from what is termed the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema,
the 1940's till the end of the 1950's. After that Nasser nationalized the
film industry and it quickly went downhill as those things generally do.
From what I can gather, most films were quite conventional, contained moral
lessons and had happy endings. Many of them also had music and Days and Nights
(Ayam Ou Layali) had all of this plus a lot of glamour and style. With the
many songs popping up the film reminded me of Bollywood films during the
same period - great black and white photography and a thick layer of Western
elements throughout. Directed by Henry Barakat (who directed loads of films
in his lifetime, 1912 - 1997) in 1955, it stars one of Egypt's legendary
male singers, Abdel Halim Hafez (1929 - 1977), and his mellow singing style
is terrific - sort of an Egyptian Perry Como. One song Ana Lak Ala toul is
pure lush romance - later I found out it is a classic. Another song Toba
(Never Again) is so catchy I had to watch it several times.
It is a simple romance from which basic moral questions arise - what is more
important, your loyalty to your family or holding to your principles. Yehia
is brought up by a step-father who married his mother after she divorced
her husband for his drinking problems. Though there is no great love between
Yehia and his step-father, he is given a good upper middle class upbringing
with an education in university. One day while rowing, he spots Samia (the
stunning Iman, a Lebanese actress) on her balcony and immediately knows she
is the girl for him and so begins to woo her the old fashioned way - through
song from below. All appears headed for a happy ending until Yehia's no good
older step-brother who likes his booze and his belly dancers in that order
kills someone in a hit and run car accident. The police think the offender
is Yehia's friend and so Yehia who was in the car is then faced with a delimma
- turn in his brother and destroy his family or watch his friend be ruined.
Not that I need to get into yet another film industry (and there doesn't
seem to be all that much available anyway with subs), but this was a really
enjoyable glimpse into another time and another place that feels very much
to have vanished.
