A country girl learns to dance, drink, and dream — but fame demands everything.
The student Nawal meets the writer Ahmed Sharaf El-Din, who is looking for a new face for a new film he wants to write. She learns to dance, sing and drink. She meets the director Raouf. In the middle of the first experience and her encouragement of Ahmed, the director casts his net on her. Her mother dies, and Nawal lives with Ahmed but refuses to marry him, hoping to become a famous star.
Acting
Soad Hosny's devastating transformation from innocent to performer.
Direction
Fatin Abdel Wahab frames desire and destruction with surgical precision.
Production
Cairo's nightclub scene rendered in gorgeous high-contrast black and white.
Director
Fatin Abdel Wahab
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film captures Egypt's pivot point: traditional values colliding with Western-style celebrity culture in Nasser's Cairo.
Soad Hosny was only 18 here — already the 'Cinderella of Egyptian Cinema' while playing a character destroyed by that exact dream.
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