One of the master pieces of the Egyptian Cinema in the 20th century based on the novel by the great Egyptian writer Taha Hussein (1889-1973). The novel itself is regarded as a masterpiece of the Arab literature.
The classic conflict between desire and obligation set deep in the countryside and manifests itself through a love story between Amna the maid and the engineer she works for, and who she plans to take revenge on for seducing her late sister and destroying the honor of her whole family.
Universally panned by Egypt's cinema audiences when it was first released in 1958, Youssef Chahine's "Cairo Station" disappeared from view for two decades until it was rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece. Watching the film now, almost half a century after its first screening, it's easy to see why it upset so many people "Cairo Station" is a pressure cooker of lust, jealousy, and psychosis.
Crippled Kenaoui (Chahine), nicknamed "Limpy" by his cruel co-workers, sells newspapers in Cairo's central station. Living out on the tracks, earning barely enough to keep the makeshift roof over his head, he spends his days fantasising about the voluptuous Hanuma (Rostom), a lemonade seller engaged to macho porter Abou Serib (Chawqi). Kenaoui's convinced she'll eventually fall in love with him if he keeps pursuing her. But with a murderer on the loose in Cairo, things may yet take an unexpected turn.
This Hitchcockian thriller brilliantly lays bare Kanaoui's hopeless sexual obsession - in one uneasy scene we watch as he frantically cuts pictures of scantily clad women out of the magazines he's supposed to be selling. Yet, director Chahine (who also plays Kenaoui) never lets us lose sight of this character's humanity. He may be lame, slightly retarded and unhealthily fixated on the cruelly manipulative Hanuma, but does he really deserve to be treated so badly
