The Return of the Prodigal Son
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Director: Youssef Chahine
1976 / 120min / Digital
The favorite younger son of a rural farming family, Ali (Ahmed Mehrez), a onetime idealist now embittered by his failures, returns from a 12-year stay in Cairo to a jubilant reception, but when his family—father Mahmoud el-Meliguy, mother Huda Sultan, elder brother Shoukry Sarhan, and nephew Hesham Selim—realize that his experience in the city has been anything but a smashing success, the reunion soon turns sour. A musical melodrama unfolding amidst the wreckage of shattered dreams, Chahine’s film, released a few years after the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, has frequently been interpreted as an allegory for the disillusionment felt in the unfulfilled promises of post-revolutionary Egypt, with songs by co-screenwriter (and renowned poet) Salah Jahin.
Distributor: Janus Films
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