''Cairo Station'', also called ''The Iron Gate'' ( ar, باب الحديد ''Bāb al-Ḥadīd''), is a 1958 Egyptian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Youssef Chahine Youssef Chahine ( ar, يوسف شاهين, Yūsuf Shāhīn ; 25 January 1926 – 27 July 2008) was an Egyptian film director. He was active in the Egyptian film industry from 1950 until his death. He directed twelve films that were listed i ...

. It was entered for competition in the

8th Berlin International Film Festival The 8th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 27 June to 8 July 1958 with the Zoo Palast as the main venue. The festival was opened by then West Berlin's newly elected mayor Willy Brandt. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Sw ...

. The film was selected as the Egyptian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress# ...

at the

31st Academy Awards The 31st Academy Awards ceremony was held on April 6, 1959, to honor the best films of 1958. The show's producer, Jerry Wald, started cutting numbers from the show to make sure it ran on time. He cut too much material and the ceremony ended 2 ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. Since the 1970s, the film has found renewed interest with new generations of international film lovers and has been hailed as a masterpiece in the style of neorealist cinema. Themes depicted in the film include the urban working class, gender-based violence, and sexual repression.

Plot

A newsstand owner takes pity on Qinawi, a lame young man, and gives him a job selling newspapers in the Cairo train station. The women there all shun him because of his mild handicap, though he has little trouble walking. Qinawi becomes obsessed with Hannuma, a beautiful cold-drink vendor. But she is engaged to Abu Siri, a husky luggage porter who is trying to organize his co-workers into a union to better their lot. Nonetheless, Qinawi proposes to her. When she rejects his fantasy of a home and children in his village, Qinawi's obsession turns to madness. Inspired by an unsolved murder in the news, he buys a knife and plots to kill Hannuma. When the local policemen try to catch Hannuma and the other women illegally selling drinks, she asks Qinawi to take her incriminating drink bucket and hide it. He seeks to lure her to a warehouse to pick it up, but she asks a friend to get it instead. In the darkness, Qinawi does not notice the substitution; he stabs the other woman repeatedly, then hides the body in a wooden crate supposedly holding Hannuma's

trousseau Trousseau may refer to: *A dowry *The wardrobe of a bride, including the wedding dress or similar clothing *A hope chest, glory box or its contents *Trousseau (grape), a wine grape also known as Bastardo ** Trousseau Gris, a white mutation of the ...

. Then he gets Abu Siri to put it aboard a train for Hannuma's impending wedding. The woman is not dead, however. She is found, and the station is alerted. The men who stand to lose by Abu Siri's unionization at first try to pin the attempted murder on him, but the would-be victim identifies her real assailant. Meanwhile, unaware of her near escape from death, Hannuma goes to get her bucket. Qinawi chases her through the rail yard and catches her, holding a knife to her head to keep the crowd at bay. The newsstand owner tells Qinawi that he will be allowed to marry Hannuma and coaxes him into putting on his wedding garment. Qinawi complies, then realizes he has donned a

straitjacket A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves that surpass the tips of the wearer's fingers. Its most typical use is restraining people who may cause harm to themselves or others. Once the wearer slides their arms into the ...

. He struggles, but is taken away.

Historical significance

''Cairo Station'' debuted in 1958. With the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 (see

Cinema of Egypt The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also referred to as Hollywood on the Nile. Since 1976, the capital has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the I ...

), the ability of

to tackle themes of the urban working class, gender-based violence and sexual repression is important to highlight as it demonstrates Chahine (and similar directors) ability to push the boundaries of Egyptian Cinema, something they would not be able to do when the film industry was nationalized in 1966. By intermixing film genres (specifically

Italian Neorealism Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pr ...

and Film Noir) Chahine was able to vividly portray Egyptian society as it was during the 1950s and in doing so provide Egyptian and international viewers a glimpse into Egypt's changing societal ideologies, and values in a post-revolutionary world.

Cast

Farid Shawqi Farid Shawqi Mohammad Abdou Shawqi ( ar, فريد شوقي محمد عبده شوقي) (July 30, 1920 in El Sayyeda Zainab – July 27, 1998 in Maadi); known as Farid Shawqi ( ar, فريد شوقي) was an Egyptian actor, screenwriter and film ...

as Abu Siri (أبو سريع Abū Sirīʿ'') *

Hind Rostom Hind Hussain Mohammed or Nariman Hussein Murad, more commonly known by her stage name Hind Rostom, ( ar, هند رستم ; November 12, 1929 – August 8, 2011) was an Egyptian actress and is considered one of the seduction icons in the ...

as Hannuma (هنومة ''Hanūma'') *

as Qinawi (قناوي ''Qināwī'') * Hassan el Baroudi as Madbouli (مدبولي ''Madbūlī'') * Abdel Aziz Khalil as Abu Gaber (أبو قبر Abū Qabr'') * Naima Wasfy (Wasfi) as Hallawatim (حلاوتي ''Ḥalāwatī'') * Said Khalil * Abdel Ghani Nagdi * Loutfi El Hakim * Abdel Hamid Bodaoha * F. El Demerdache * Said El Araby * Ahmed Abaza * Hana Abdel Fattah * Safia Sarwat

Critical reception

Upon its release in 1958, ''Cairo Station'' provoked outrage among Egyptian audiences, who were expecting "conventional melodramas and comedies that were staples of Egypt's early film industry." According to the same review, the film's treatment of suppressed sexuality and its adverse effect on Qinawi's mental health are both highlighted by Chahine's rendering of his "

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform action ...

", as well as by the fictional context, relating closely to social and psychological problems of a society marked by violent

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors ...

or the repression of

workers' rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights in ...

. Despite the film's initial lack of acceptance, a new generation of international film lovers discovered it in the 1970s, and in 2020, it was presented as part of a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of Youssef Chahine's films on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. In 2002, ''Cairo Station'' was called "the highlight of the Chahine season at the National Film Theatre in London", and on the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, it received an overall score of 100%.

References

External links