I Want a Solution (1975)

The Second Wife

A story in the Egyptian countryside about an unjust mayor who controls everything in the village with his power.

Rayya and Sekina

In Alexandria a terrifying phenomenon of the disappearance of women, spreads terror in the city. Police work to unravel its secrets. Officer Ahmed is preparing a plan to uncover who's behind it and it turns out to be the gang of Raya and Sakina, who were targeting women to steal their jewelry.

Whom Should We Shoot?

The film describes the political and economical corruption in 70s’ Egypt, through the relationship between a powerful man and his wife’s ex-fiance.

The Thief and the Dogs

This film, inspired by Naguib Mahfouz' The thief and the dogs, tells the story of Mahran, a thief who quickly ascends to be the head of his gang. However, his second in command conspires against Mahran to take his position and his wife. After his prison term, Mahran is thirsty for revenge. But being chased by the police and by his new enemies destines him to a tragic life in hiding.

Sunset and Sunrise

In the wake of the Cairo Fire, Essam feels guilty for betraying his friend Samir by messing around with his wife Madiha. Essam decides to take revenge on Madiha's father who pressured him to marry her to avoid a scandal.

The Postman

Abbas, a resident of Cairo, is appointed by the government to hold the office of supervisor in a post office in a small village in Upper Egypt.

Dananeir

A concubine to a ruling family is challenged when the family is overthrown.

Wife Number 13

Murad Salem is a rich man who is used to getting what he wants whenever he wants it. When he meets a beautiful woman in Alexandria, he wants her as wife number thirteen. He buys himself into the heart of the woman, until a well-meaning, former fiancée of her husband tells her just how many times he has been divorced. The new bride launches into a series of ploys that keep her away from the marriage bed.

The Thug

Haridy arrives at the vegetable market in search of a job opportunity, he works for Master Abu Zaid and after a while he separates and marries Hossnyia. Haridy forms an alliance against Abu Zaid, but he soon becomes more powerful and his condition turns to worse.

The Fools Alley

Khadiga lives in a poor neighborhood with her parents. She tries to save up money so she could marry her sweetheart Taha. Taha buys a lottery ticket in hope of winning a lot of money, but it ends up in Khadiga's religious father's hands who throws it away. The ticket gets picked up by the town's fool, who gets lucky and wins, driving the town into chaos.

Cairo 30

Mahgoub is a villager who moves to Cairo in search of a better life. When he enlists friend Salem's help to find him a job, Salem not only gets him a job at the ministry where he works but he finds him a bride as well. But the bride is the mistress of Qasem Bek, who will be visiting her once a week.

Salama Is Fine

A courier is sent to deposit a cash amount to the bank but he arrives late. He goes to a hotel to spend the night and keeps the money in the hotel safe, but he gets confused with the Prince of Kandahar and who admires him and insists on keeping this confusion to reveal his enemies.

The Beginning and the End

Set in the suburbs of Cairo in the late 1930s, the story follows a middle-class Egyptian family grappling with the hardships of life after the death of their father, their sole breadwinner. The mother and her four children—three brothers and their sister, Nefisah—struggle to avoid slipping into poverty. They all go in different directions which aren't exactly good.

Rise to the Abyss

Abla travels to France and gets recruited by the Mossad under the pretext of working as a journalist. By the time she discovers the truth, she's already in too deep. As Abla recruits her fiancé, an engineer in the Egyptian army, the General Intelligence Directorate assigns Khaled to arrest her.

Your Day Will Come

With her husband terminally ill, a wife becomes the target of her husband's friend who wants her money so bad that he kills his friend and proposes to his newly-widowed wife.

Zeinab

adaptation of Mohamed Hussein Heikal novel.

The Sinners

Actress Sanaa Kamel is found murdered on her bed, and an investigation starts, taking into account everyone of the guests she hosted at her apartment the night she was killed: her jealous fiancé, a school instructor, a corrupt market manager, one of Sanaa's friends who works as a contractor, and a stud who was Sanaa's secret lover. As the investigation progresses, all the conclusions about the characters are always under question.

Saladin the Victorious

The first Sultan of Egypt and Syria leads the Muslim military campaign against the invading Christians from Europe during the Third Crusade.

The Night of Counting the Years

Set in 1881, a year before the start of British colonial rule, it is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies they have discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artifacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members made a crucial decision when the Antiquities Service arrived.

A Man in Our House

A Man in Our House is a 1961 Egyptian film about the resistance to British rule in Egypt which ended in the exile of King Farouk in 1954 and the rise to power of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Jamila, the Algerian

Djamila, a young Algerian woman living with her brother Hadi and her uncle Mustafa in the Casbah district of Algiers under the French occupation of Algeria, sees the full extent of injustice, tyranny and cruelty on his compatriots by French soldiers. Jamila's nationalist spirit will be strengthened when French forces invade her university to arrest her classmate Amina who commits suicide by ingesting poison. Shortly after the prominent Algerian guerrilla leader Youssef takes refuge with her, she realizes that her uncle Mustafa is part of this network of anti-colonial rebel fighters. Her uncle linked her to the National Liberation Front (FLN). A series of events illustrate Jamila's participation in resistance operations against the occupier before she was finally captured and tortured. Finally, despite the efforts of her French lawyer, Jamila is sentenced to death...

The Choice

When a free-spirited sailor is found murdered, his twin brother, a famous novelist, is the prime suspect. Investigators uncover a possible liaison between the dead sailor and the writer's wife, and also learn that Sayed's successful fictions owed much to the inspiration of his brother Mahmoud's adventurous life. Just as the evidence against the writer seems overwhelming, Mahmoud turns up alive. But why are the twins never seen together...?

Alexandria… Why?

Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.

House No. 13

Sherif visits a psychiatrist for his illness who exploits him to commit a murder by hypnotism.

Between Heaven and Earth

In the blasting heat of a Friday afternoon in Cairo, a group of people – among them a movie star, a thief, a madman, a cook and a pregnant woman – find themselves trapped in an elevator for 12 hours.

Cairo Station

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

The Rebels

A sick doctor is admitted to an isolated sanatorium located in the middle of a desolate desert. As a patient, he becomes aware of the discrepancy that exists between the conditions of the privileged patients, who are well-treated, and the poor ones, who particularly suffer from a lack of water. With the help of the doctor, the poor patients rebel and undertake to restore justice and order in the hospital.

Bit of Fear

Based on Tharwat Abaza's short story, 'Shey min al Khawf' takes place in a rural Egyptian village. Atris' reign of terror on the villagers is put to the test when a public act of defiance is carried out by Fu'ada, the object of his affection.

Empire M

Well off widow working Mother "Mona" is struggling raising 6 kids at different ages ranging from elementary school to University graduating students. The day she thinks to bring a new husband home proves to be a very difficult task.

Karnak

In the 1960s, the lives of three college classmates, Ismail, Zainab, and Helmy, take a dark turn when the three of them are arrested and tortured as part of the repressive and violent practices that were employed by the General Intelligence Directorate back then.

The Water-Carrier Is Dead

The story of the friendship that develops between two men with quite different world views. One, a water carrier whose wife has died twenty years before, spends his days thinking about her. The other, who works in the funeral business, spends his life in the pursuit of pleasure because he recognizes that death will bring an end to all enjoyment. They meet and become friends. Through this friendship the water carrier is encouraged to change his morbid way of thinking and to enjoy life.

My Father Is on the Tree

A young man is shunned by his friends after he starts an affair with a dancer.

Return My Heart

In Egypt forties and before the 14th of July revolution in 1952, a poor family lives in a prince's palace where the father works as a gardener. The family has two children Ali and Hassan. Ali grows up liking the prince's daughter who loves him too. Now grown ups, they realize how impossible this love story is. Joining the army, Ali fights in Palestine while the brother joins the police and is part of the King's guards. Ali gets back from Palestine and joins the secret military movement that will soon rule Egypt, The Free Officers. The revolution starts and the Free Officers are now in charge, putting Ali against his brother as a guard for the king and also against his lover, the prince's daughter as the revolution will confiscate all her family's wealth.

I Am Free

Part of a trilogy by Salah Abu Seif about women’s empowerment. The film takes place in late 1940s / early 1950s urban Egypt, and tells the story of a young woman’s search for personal freedom and a fulfilling identity as a young modern Egyptian.

Struggle of the Heroes

A difficult period in Egypt in the year 1947, when the villages of Egypt attacked cholera. A doctor (Shukri), who tried to serve the villagers to save them from poverty and hunger, is appointed in a village. (Adel Bey) The feudal lord of the village exploits its people to work on his land as forced labor and whoever objects to hand him over to a mental hospital, taking advantage of his influence.

Struggle on the Nile

Naïve young Muhasab is asked to accompany his more dependable friend, Mujahed, on a voyage up the Nile to Cairo. Once there, they will sell their boat, the "Bride of the Nile," in order to buy a barge that will make their village elders more competitive in business and trade. But a ruthless business rival is determined to see that the men never reach Cairo. Matters become even more complicated when Nargis, a scheming carnival dancer, is discovered hiding out in the cargo hold of the "Bride of the Nile."

We the Students

Directed by Atef Salem.

Love has a Final Story

Refat is a teacher with a heart disease, who marries the poor girl Salwa, despite the opposition of his mother who is trying to persuade him to divorce her in exchange for his share in the inheritance. Salwa resorts to holy people hoping to cure her husband.

Gone with No Return

Attia (Yehia al-Fakharani) works as a simple employee, after his mother-in-law threatens to break his engagement from her daughter because of his delay in getting an apartment. He travels to his hometown to sell his inheritance. There he falls in love with Kharyia (Leila Alawi) daughter of Kamal Bey (Farid Shawki) who bought his land.

Lasheen

Lachin, commander of the Army of One rulers, manages the affairs of governance prime minister, who traded Bakot parish while the ruling does not offer nor a delay in something a multi-female relations spineless, "Lachin" trying ruling alert to the tricks of the prime minister, is arrested "Lachin" charges Gwighth going to love him and he loves the ruling and filed in prison. Erupts people who had been fed up with the unjust actions of Prime Minister and took advantage of the famine to seize power, the release of Lachin the hands of the people and justice prevail in the country.

They Made Me a Criminal

Sultan thought that his father's death will soften his uncle's heart and he will take good care of him. Contrary to Sultan's expectations, the uncle sent him to an orphanage. When he leaves the orphanage, Sultan fails to find an honest job, and he vows revenge.

The Collar and the Bracelet

In 1933 in the village of Karnak in Luxor, sad lives with her husband Bakhit Bishari paraplegic and TB disease.

Teenagers

Nada meets the pilot officer Adel at a party with her liberal colleague Safaa, and goes out with him in the plane he is piloting. She is absent from school, which causes her problems as the headmistress informs the mother of her daughter’s absence. Adel proposes to her, but her family refuses her marriage to the officer and forces her to get engaged to... Her cousin after insulting and beating her.

People Of The Top

Zaatar is a thief who works for Zaghloul the owner of an import and export company. Zaghloul exploits Zaatar and makes him smuggle goods from customs. Zaatar gets to know Siham,the sister of officer Mohammed, and they fall in love and he starts working on his own and competes with Zaghloul.

A Song on the Passage

Set during the Six-Day War, the connection between a group of Egyptian soldiers on a passage in the desert and the command center drops. They try to survive despite the enemy attacks and lack of ammunition and supplies.

Oh Islam

Set in the 14th century. Under their leader Timur, the Tartar hordes invade the Middle East and take over areas as widespread as Persia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Syria. A lowly woman from a harem (Lubna Aziz) rises to lead the Egyptians against the invaders.

Kit Kat

Sheikh Hosny is a blind man who lives with his old mother and his frustrated son in the Kit Kat neighborhood. His son Youssef dreams of going to Europe to find work, and has a relationship with a divorced woman named Fatima. Sheikh Hosny refuses to admit his handicap and dreams of riding a motorcycle like every sighted person, he also spends his nights smoking hash with the locals in order to forget his miseries after the loss of his wife and selling his father's house.

The Shame

A family inherits their father's drug business which leads to their undoing.

The Innocent

A simple minded peasant was recruited in the Egyptian army where he was deceived to believe that political activists are his homeland enemies, but not for so long.

Passion and Revenge

A woman seeks revenge on the man she thinks killed her husband but falls in love with him in the process.

Diary of a Country Prosecutor

Based on the novel by Egyptian writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, 1937, Diary of A Country Prosecutor records the daily activities and tribulations of a public official appointed to act as a village justice in the countryside.

Visitor at Dawn

Rescue police receives a report on the killing of a leftist journalist in her apartment. The prosecutor moves to the scene of the incident and tries to reach the murderer.

Mr. Omar

Gaber Effendi is a simple employee at Ezbet Omar al-Alfi's, expelled by the head of the family after Jabir discovers that there is fraud in the accounts of the estate. Gaber meets with Berlanti, the wife of Omar Bey's, noting a great similarity between him and her absent husband in India, Omar. Following the advice of a legal advisor, Omar Bey's family believes that he is still alive and living in India. By chance, Jaber Effendi goes to Omar's house and is seen by the family and gets married, but Omar finds out the truth and tries to exploit the resemblance to seize wealth, but ultimately fails.

The Black Market

A corrupt grocer in a traditional Cairene neighborhood enters into an alliance with comprador merchants. Their goal is to hoard scarce commodities during the World WAR II, and then to sell them at vastly inflated prices. Eventually the grocer's neighbors rebel at his tactics. They call in the national athorities and the black marketeers are brought to justice.

The Emigrant

The biblical tale of Joseph is told from an Egyptian perspective in this interesting character study. In this film, Joseph is called Ram. Ram, tired of his family's backward superstitious life, and tired of being picked on by his brothers, wants to go to Egypt to study agriculture. His brothers travel with him across Sinai, but then suddenly sell him to Ozir, an Egyptian who works for a Theban military leader, Amihar. Amihar is impressed by Ram's drive and personal charm and so grants Ram some desolate land outside the capital. Ram soon finds himself a pawn in the political and sexual games between Amihar and his wife Simihit, a high priestess of the Cult of Amun.

Return of the Prodigal Son

Freed after spending years in prison, an activist's homecoming turns into a dark affair as his disillusion clashes with his family's expectations. Demonstrating Chahine’s eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and profound portrait of personal and political disillusionment.

Life or Death

A man suffers from a heart attack so he sends his daughter to get medicine for him. After providing the medicine for the girl, the pharmacist discovers that he has unknowingly mixed a poisonous elixir. Reporting what happened to the police, the chief officer of Cairo starts an intriguing, full-fledged campaign to save the man before he takes the lethal medicine.

Playing with Giants

When Hassan Bahlal, a young unemployed man, calls the National Security Agency to report a fire that is to break out in a factory the next day, a new chapter in Hassan's life begins as he tells the officer he has foreseen the incident in a dream.

The Leech

A rural mother sells her only cow in order to enroll her son, an imam (Shukri Sarhan) at Dar al-Uloom College. When an imam arrives in Cairo, he rents a room in the Citadel area from a domineering woman named Shafa'at (Tahiya Karioka) who is fascinated by his youth and vitality and lures him into practicing vice with her. As a result, he stumbles in his studies and health. At this time, a girl whom she and her father knew from a young age helps him to get rid of all the corruption in which he lives, and her father advises him to stay away from intercessions, but the intercessions plots against him in an attempt to stay with her.

The Land

Set in 1933, the mayor informs the peasants that the share of irrigation of their land will be split equally between them and feudal lord Mahmoud Bey. The peasants send Mohamed Effendi to submit a petition to the government. Mahmoud Bey then proposes a project that would require taking part of the peasants' lands.

The Sparrow

Set shortly before and during the Six Day War in June of 1967, The Sparrow follows a young police officer stationed in a small village in Upper Egypt whose inhabitants suffer from the harassment of a corrupt businessman.

An Egyptian Story

After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suffers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef Chahine) the man he has become.

Between Two Mansions

The life paths of the family of Mr. Ahmed Abdel Gawad during the period of the British occupation, and before the outbreak of the 1919 revolution, starting with the family's patriarch who lives a double life, his son Fahmy who joins a secret political organization, and the older son Yassin who follows his father's footsteps in pursuing women.

The Mountain

A young architect struggles to convince a superstitious community, in thrall to antiquity traffickers, to build houses instead of living in precarious mountain caves.

Our Best Days

A poor girl lives on the rooftop of a building. Three young neighbors fall in love with her. The decide to help her when they discover that she is seriously ill and in need of an urgent operation.

The Public Prosecutor

A tough-on-crime public prosecutor's world is turned upside down when his son is accused of murdering a dancer.

Supermarket

Ramzi is a principled musician who lives in his inlaws house. He plays the piano in a resort to make a living. When his sister in law, who hates music, kicks him out, he moves back to his mother's department, and meets Amira, a childhood friend

Where Did My Life Go?

Ayn Omry is a movie about a teenage girl who decides to get married to an old rich man to break free from her controlling mother and to save the family name after loosing their fortune. But she discovers that her husband is a sick jealous man he locked her with 2 old weird sisters in a distant farmhouse After many years of suffering with her sick husband Aleya decides to leave him.

The Will

The story of Mohammed the son of a barber who has recently got his degree, his lover Fatma, his rivel Al-Etr.

Alkhataya

Hussein and Ahmad are brothers. Hussein falls in love with a colleague, but his father mysteriously decides that Ahmad should marry her instead.

Al Avokato

After getting sentenced with one month in prison for contempt of court, the lawyer Sbankh tries to take advantage of his jail time to establish many relations, most notably with drug dealer Hassouna,and Salim Abu Zaid, one of the centers of power in the 60s.

The Nightingale's Prayer

This compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor.