The '70s Egyptian romance that dares to go exactly where you fear it will.
An innocent love story develops between high school student Sohair (Naglaa Fathi) and the young lawyer Hassan (Nour El-Sherif). Circumstances stand in the way of this love. When Sohair goes to attend her friend Mervat's birthday party, the reckless young man Essam (Ashraf Abdel Ghafour) - Mervat's uncle - falls in love with her. After the party, Sohair goes home late and her stepfather, teacher Madbouly (Mohamed Reda), throws her out to punish her. She finds no solution but to return to Mervat's house, where she finds Essam alone after the party ends and he assaults her.
Acting
Naglaa Fathi's face does what the script cannot say.
Direction
Aldin lets dread accumulate like humidity.
Director
Ahmed Diaa Aldin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film arrived at peak 'realist' Egyptian cinema, when directors used melodrama to smuggle social critiques past censors. The assault-as-plot-device was controversial even then.
Naglaa Fathi became Egypt's 'girl next door' specifically through roles like this—traumatized innocents that audiences couldn't stop watching suffer. Her stardom was built on our collective guilt.
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