''The Nightingale's Prayer'' ( ar, دعاء الكروان,

translit. Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...

''Doaa al-Karawan'' ; also called ''The Curlew's Cry'') is a 1959 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

Henry Barakat Henry Antoun Barakat ( ar, هنري أنطون بركات, 11 June 1914, Cairo – 27 May 1997, Cairo) was a well known Egyptian film director. He was born in Shubra to a Melkite Greek Catholic father of Syro-Lebanese descent, and a Syro-Leb ...

and based on a novel titled

Doaa al-Karawan(novel) ''Doaa al-Karwan'' (Arabic: دعاء الكروان)(''The Call of the Curlew'') is a novel by Taha Hussein, an Egyptian writer, published in 1934. Taha Hussein dedicated it to the writer Abbas Al-Akkad. The Lebanese poet Khalil Mutran was inspir ...

by the prominent writer

Taha Hussein Taha Hussein (, ar, طه حسين; November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a figurehead for the Egyptian Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Middle ...

. It stars

Faten Hamama Faten Ahmed Hamama ( ar, فاتن حمامه ; 27 May 1931 – 17 January 2015) was an Egyptian film and television actress and film producer. She was the first wife of Ezz El-Dine Zulficar. She made her screen debut in 1939, when she was o ...

and

Ahmed Mazhar Ahmed Hafez Mazhar ( ar, أحمد حافظ مظهر, ʾAḥmad Ḥāfeẓ Mazāhar; 8 October 1917 – 8 May 2002) was an Egyptian actor. He graduated from the military academy in 1938 Egyptian Cinema 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 Inter ...

centennial, this film was selected one of the best 150 Egyptian film productions. It received an award of recognition from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

and 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

32nd Academy Awards The 32nd Academy Awards ceremony was held on April 4, 1960 at the RKO Pantages Theatre, to honor the films of 1959. William Wyler's Bible epic ''Ben-Hur'' won 11 Oscars, breaking the record of nine set the previous year by '' Gigi''. This t ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. It was also entered into the

10th Berlin International Film Festival The 10th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June to 5 July 1960. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Spanish film '' El Lazarillo de Tormes'' directed by César Fernández Ardavín. Jury The following people were announc ...

Plot

Amna is a young woman that witnesses the

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

of her older sister by her uncle, who had abandoned her family and left them with no support. She understands from her mother that her sister deserves to die because she has dishonored the family. Amna doesn't agree. She believes that her uncle should be blamed for their conditions. She seeks revenge from the

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who swayed her sister and lied to her thus causing her death. Amna moves to his house to work as a

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

and tries to

poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

him several times, but all her plans fail. She discovers it's impossible to kill him. This engineer starts to approach her, but she resists him, which makes him even more attracted to her. The poor girl thinks that by not resisting him anymore and pretending to love him, she would be able to destroy his life. What she doesn't expect is that she herself would fall in love with him. She plans to dig a hole and trick him into falling in it. She tries but fails and both fall in the hole. She faces him with the truth, and reveals who she is. She decides to leave him as she knows that her plans have failed. Her uncle finds out what she has done and decides to kill her because she has ruined the family's reputation. As she steps out of the engineer's house, she sees her uncle and immediately realizes that he has bad intentions, but the engineer sees him too, and takes the

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and ...

in his back to protect her and save her life.

Cast

as Amna *

Ahmed Mazhar Ahmed Hafez Mazhar ( ar, أحمد حافظ مظهر, ʾAḥmad Ḥāfeẓ Mazāhar; 8 October 1917 – 8 May 2002) was an Egyptian actor. He graduated from the military academy in 1938 Amina Rizk Amina Rizk ( ar, أمينة رزق; April 15, 1910 – August 24, 2003) was a classic Egyptian actress who appeared in around 208 artworks including more than 70 movies between 1928 and 1996. She was calm in her later years, but described as a ...

as Amna and Hanady's Mother *

Zahrat El-Ola Zahrat El-Ola (10 June 1934 – 18 December 2013) was an Egyptian actress, and was the second wife of Salah Zulfikar. She was famous for her roles in light comedies and drama in the 1950s and 1960s. She is one of the iconic actresses in Egypt. E ...

as Hanady * Abdel Alim Khattab as Uncle Gabber *

Mimi Chakib Mimi Chakib or Mimi Shakib (25 December 1913 – 20 May 1983) ( ar, ميمي شكيب), born Ameena Chakib, was an Egyptian actress. She mostly played secondary roles, and appeared in more than 150 films between 1940s and early 1980s. Career ...

as Zanooba *

Raga El Geddawy A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as a ...

as Khadeeja

Reception

In 2020,

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' named ''The Nightingale's Prayer'' as the 19th-greatest African film of all time, calling it "an extravagant

revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

melodrama, or

Beauty-and-the-Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine T ...

fable."

References

Notes

* * * * *

External links