Educational Media Reviews Online

This Egyptian feature film is quite rightly regarded as one of the classics of Middle Eastern cinema, and is perhaps the best film of director Youssef Chahine’s career. With Cairo’s main railroad station as its setting, Chahine introduces a wide array of Egyptian characters from all walks of life, and they intermingle with the station vendors and porters who are the film’s main characters. The style of the film swings from melodrama to realism, and the plot itself is a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hitchcock’s later work. The main story concerns disabled newspaper vendor Kenawi (played by Chahine), who is driven insane by sexual frustration following his rejection by lemonade-seller Hanuma. Braided into Kenawi’s story is a strong subplot on workers’ rights, as Hanuma’s boyfriend, Abu Seri, tries to unionize the station’s luggage handlers. The entire film offers a strong argument for fair and respectful treatment of all people. The co-workers who surround Kenawi are basically kind and decent people – Madbuli, the newsagent, rescues him from the gutter and gives him a job and a place to live, Hanuma talks and laughs with him, and Abu Seri looks after those weaker than himself – yet Kenawi is allowed to slip through the cracks, his growing insanity unmarked by his ‘family’ at Cairo Station until it’s too late. And it’s difficult not to be affected by the desperate lives of the railway workers, living in derelict shacks and working long hours for very poor compensation, at the mercy of their employers.

The videotape quality is good, doing justice to the fine, highly detailed cinematography (by Alvise) that makes this a beautiful film to watch. This videotape is part of Arab Film Distribution’s Youssef Chahine Collection, which also includes the feature films The Alexandria Trilogy, Destiny, The Emigrant, The Land, The Other,The Return of the Prodigal Son, Saladin, The Sixth Day, and The Sparrow, plus Chahine’s documentary, Cairo as seen by Chahine.

Cairo Station is in Arabic, with English subtitles.