Cairo Station (Bab Al-Hadid )
Dir: Youssef Chahine
Egypt , 1958, Arabic, 77mins, DCP
Cast: Farid Shawqi, Hind Rostom, Youssef Chahine
Consistently voted one of the greatest Arab-language films, Cairo Station cannily combines steamy melodrama with a neorealist approach for this engaging portrait of one day in the life of the capital’s main railway terminal. A newspaper vendor takes pity on Qinawi, a crippled young man, whose sincere if obsessive passion for a sultry, free-spirited soft drink seller wanders off course, leading to his tragic end on the streets of Cairo. Chahine effectively captures an Egypt under an atmosphere of repression and tension in the throes of transition, while as Qinawi, he shows himself to be an extraordinary actor.
Berlin International Film Festival: In Competition
25/1(Sun):Film talk with Lau Yam
Screening:
In-theatre Screening
Of Land and Men - The Social Cinema of Youssef Chahine
2026-01-25 (Sun)
16:302026-02-14 (Sat)
20:45
Post-screening talk
