Cairo Station (1958)

Kinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed by Hannouma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. ... See full summary »

Director:

Youssef Chahine

Writers:

Mohamed Abu Youssef (dialogue), Abdel Hai Adib

Stars:

Farid Shawqi, Hind Rostom, Youssef Chahine

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Farid Shawqi	...	Abu Siri (as Farid Chawki)
Hind Rostom	...	Hanuma
Youssef Chahine	...	Qinawi
Hassan el Baroudi	...	Madbouli (as H. el Baroudy)
Abdel Aziz Khalil	...	Abu Gaber
Naima Wasfy	...	Hallawatim (as Naima Wasfi)
Said Khalil
Abdel Ghani Nagdi
Loutfi El Hakim
Abdel Hamid Bodaoha
F. El Demerdache
Said El Araby
Ahmed Abaza
Hana Abdel Fattah
Safia Sarwat

Storyline

Kinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed by Hannouma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she treats Kinawi in a sympathetic way and jokes with him about a possible relationship, She is actually in love with Abu Sri', a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.

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Plot Keywords:

train | working class | living in railway station | labor union | union | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Egypt

Language:

Arabic

Release Date:

16 January 1962 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Cairo Station

Filming Locations:

Cairo, Egypt

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Sex & Melodrama (2011)

User Reviews

Dark character-driven film with psychosexual undertones

I don't really agree with certain circles who claim Cairo Station "one of the greatest films ever made" but it's a neat little film. It has that very basic, almost primitive, shooting style and editing which in some ways reminds of me Greek romance melodramas from the same time yet the perverse content sets it worlds apart from that kind of populist cinema which I suspect was as popular with lower/middle-class audiences in Egypt as it was in Greece. I liked that Chahine makes the titular railway station a stage for contrast between the old and the new. Between fashionable swinging Egyptians and the traditional Muslim conservatives. Between a lady president dressed in a modern pantsuit and destitute girls selling soda to the passengers. Between the old feudal faction of porters and the new one trying to assert its working rights by forming a union. This sociopolitical contrast touching on contemporary changes in Egyptian society (which, other than what the movie presents, I know nothing about but seem to be almost identical with the anxieties that surfaced in Greek screwball comedies of the same time) reflected in the movie itself, out of a typical melodrama of thwarted love Chahine dragging a dark noirish thriller with psychosexual undertones and an almost slasher-like turn in the third act replete with knife-wielding crazies chasing beautiful women that predates Psycho by a good two years. In borrowing the generic aspects of a programme picture for his character-driven piece and portraying his mentally imbalanced protagonist with sympathy and humanity, Chahine made a movie more wholesome than its 73 minute duration would suggest.