Karnak
Ali Badrakhan – Egypt – 1975
Set in the aftermath of the '67 war, the film portrays the negative consequences of the July 23rd revolution. The two main characters are Ismail and Zenab, both medical students at Cairo University, who are arrested on trumped-up charges together with their politically outspoken friend Helmy. Each time they end up in prison, they return having lost some of their youthful innocence. The film's plot is based on a Naguib Mahfouz novel with the same title and is important for its blunt critical depiction of the Nasser regime's paranoia and disregard for human rights. As such it contains some explicit torture scenes and the film – because of its criticism – was initially censored until Sadat allowed its screening.
With: Nur el-Sherif, Soad Hosny, Kamal el-Shenawy and Shweikar
Duration: 140 minutes
Language: Arabic (English subtitles)