In the 1960s, the lives of three college classmates, Ismail, Zainab, and Helmy, take a dark turn when the three of them are arrested and tortured as part of the repressive and violent practices that were employed by the General Intelligence Directorate back then.
Acting
Soad Hosny's haunted eyes say everything the censors wouldn't.
Direction
Badrakhan filmed what Nasser-era Egypt tried to bury.
Writing
Naguib Mahfouz's novel adapted with zero sanitization.
Director
Ali Badrakhan
Soad Hosny
Zeinab
Nour El-Sherif
Ismail El Sheikh
Kamal Al-Shenawy
Khaled Safwan
Farid Shawqy
Diab
Shwikar
Oronfella
Salah Zulfikar
Shoukry
Emad Hamdy
Author Taha El Gharib
Mohamed Sobhi
Helmy
Tahiya Cariocca
Zeinab's Mother
Ali Al Sharif
Hesballah
Fayez Halawa
Detective
Waheid Seif
Farouq Youssef
El-Sisi
Naima ElSoghier
Ismail's Mother
Younes Shalaby
Mohsen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Banned for nearly a decade; released only after Sadat's assassination loosened censorship. The regime it depicted had barely changed.
Naguib Mahfouz wrote the novel after hearing real torture testimonies; Soad Hosny insisted on no makeup for the prison scenes.
EG
