Part of a trilogy by Salah Abu Seif about women’s empowerment. The film takes place in late 1940s / early 1950s urban Egypt, and tells the story of a young woman’s search for personal freedom and a fulfilling identity as a young modern Egyptian.
Acting
Lobna Abdel Aziz's eyes do more than dialogue ever could.
Direction
Abu Seif frames women trapped in doorways, windows, men's gazes.
Cinematography
Shadow-drenched Cairo streets that feel alive and suffocating.
Director
Salah Abu Seif
Lobna Abdel Aziz
أمينة حسين زايد
Shoukry Sarhan
عباس صفوت
Zouzou Nabil
عمة أمينة
Hussein Reyaad
زوج عمة أمينة
Kamal Yasseen
أحمد حلمي
Layla Karim
فيكي
Hassan Youssef
علي
Mohamed Abdel Koudouss
حسين زايد
Gamil Ezz ElDein
Gamalat Zayed
Ali Reda
زكي
Hussain Ismael
موظف بالجريدة
Victoria Habiqah
Fifi Saeed
الجارة
Aziza Badr
نعيمة
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released two years before the 1952 revolution, the film's critique of bourgeois hypocrisy was seen as dangerously political; censors nearly banned it.
Abu Seif modeled Amina after his own sisters' struggles, making this arguably the first Egyptian film to treat female consciousness as worthy of serious artistic inquiry rather than melodrama.
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