LGM Film Club, Part 411: Cairo Station

Criterion has recently added the films of the pioneering director Youssef Chahine and I’ve checked a couple of them out. The best I’ve seen so far is the 1958 film Cairo Station. This is really a fantastic film in the neorealist vein, taken from its postwar Italian roots and set in Cairo. It follows a disabled man (who I have to say does not seem that disabled the way he is played, more like a guy with a slight limp) who due to his social isolation has been sex obsessed and places all his dreams on a girl who works as a refreshment seller. She is rather open with her sexuality but is engaged to another guy who is starting a union for the sellers at the station. It does not end well for our friend, as these neorealist films never do. But really, this is masterful directing and is in my book as good as The Bicycle Thief and other classics of the genre. Not every Chahine film is this good, but this is well worth your time. Plus how many Egyptian films have you seen?