A rural mother sells her only cow in order to enroll her son, an imam (Shukri Sarhan) at Dar al-Uloom College. When an imam arrives in Cairo, he rents a room in the Citadel area from a domineering woman named Shafa'at (Tahiya Karioka) who is fascinated by his youth and vitality and lures him into practicing vice with her. As a result, he stumbles in his studies and health. At this time, a girl whom she and her father knew from a young age helps him to get rid of all the corruption in which he lives, and her father advises him to stay away from intercessions, but the intercessions plots against him in an attempt to stay with her.
Acting
Tahiya Karioka's predatory charm — Egypt's original femme fatale
Direction
Abu Seif's Citadel shadows frame temptation like a trap
Costume
Shafa'at's evolving wardrobe charts the hero's moral descent
Director
Salah Abu Seif
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dar al-Uloom was the pipeline for rural Egyptians into urban religious bureaucracy — Imam's arc mirrors thousands of real displacement stories.
Tahiya Karioka was originally a bellydancer; casting her as the 'leech' was Salah Abu Seif's meta-commentary on how Egypt viewed performative female sexuality.
EG
