Abwab El-Lail
| Abwab El-Lail | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hassan Reda |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | Sa’ad Makkawi |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Andre Ryder |
| Cinematography | Victor Antoun |
| Edited by | Hassan Afifi |
| Distributed by | Egyptian General Organization for Cinema and Television |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | Egypt |
| Language | Arabic |
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Abwab El-Lail (Arabic: أبواب الليل, lit. Night Gates) is an Egyptian film released on June 9, 1969. It is directed by Hassan Reda, features a screenplay by Sa’ad Makkawi, and stars Yousuf Shaaban, Laila Taher, and Salah Mansour. The plot revolves around a young man named Mohamed, whose mental frailties and poverty drive him to become a counterfeiter of currency until he goes clean with the help of his loyal girlfriend.
Cast
- Yousuf Shaaban (Mohamed Salama)
- Salah Mansour (Hosni Mounir, a currency counterfeiter)
- Laila Taher (Kawthar, Hosni Mounir’s wife)
- Zizi Mustafa (Safiya bint Sayed, Mohamed Salama’s girlfriend)
- Madiha Kamel (Zizi, Hosni Mounir’s mistress)
- Naima Al-Saghir (Narges, a pub owner)
- Saeed Saleh (Badran)
- Aleya Abdel Moneim (Amina, Mohamed Salama’s aunt)
- Eskandar Mansy (Sayed, Safiya’s father)
- Shafik Noureddin (Hajj Salama, Mohamed Salama’s father)
- Sayed Ibrahim (Khawaja Kiriakou, counterfeiting press owner)
- Said Khalil (Muallim al-Wahsh, a counterfeit coin dealer)
- Ahmed Abo Abeya (counterfeit press worker)
- Hamed Morsi (Narges, pub singer)
- Mohamed al-Sakka
- Hussein Ismail
- Aboul Fotouh Amara
- Abdulqader Hussain
- Abdel Ghani al-Najdi
Synopsis
Young Mohamed Salama (Yousuf Shaaban) works at the counterfeit money mill of Khawaja Kiriakou (Sayed Ibrahim), who is amazed by Mohamed’s gifted calligraphy with which he forges bank notes. Mohamed lives in the Bab al-Khalq neighborhood (near the eponymous gate to Cairo with his father, a silversmith named Hajj Salama (Shafik Noureddin) and his aunt Amina (Aleya Abdel Moneim). The young man is constantly tormented by anxiety about his future and choices. His morality is overcome by his poverty, and he becomes easy prey for counterfeiter Hosni Mounir (Salah Mansour) when they meet at the bar run by Narges (Naima Al-Saghir) in the neighborhood of Bab al-Louq and Hosni shows him the tools of the trade.
Hosni owns a hardware store and is married to the aspiring gold-digger Kawthar (Laila Taher). Kawthar seduces Hosni to get and keep his talents on board, with the full knowledge of her husband, who himself is cheating with Zizi (Madiha Kamel), who promises her wealth and marriage if she stays with him. Kawthar learns of this and decides to move back in with her mother in Alexandria and buy a small hotel to run with Mohamed, who is torn between a life in sin with Kawthar and a lawful marriage to Safiya and legitimate work.
Mohamed tries to stay in touch with his father, Safiya, and her father, but he cannot leave Hosni and Kawthar’s illegitimate business. Feeling guilty for giving counterfeit money to poor people, Mohamed takes Kawthar up on a suggestion to counterfeit large denominations so they can get rich quick and retire. He succeeds in yielding a large sum that he splits with Kawthar and Hosni three ways, leading to an amicable separation. Kawthar tries to exchange her notes for real currency from Muallim al-Wahsh (Said Khalil), a fellow counterfeiter, and buy the hotel with it, but the police arrest them. Hosni is arrested on arrival at Zizi’s place, and Mohamed’s guilty conscience leads him to turn himself in with the currency at the Security Directorate, and Safiya promises to wait for his release from prison.
Songs
| Title | Lyricist | Composer | Singer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “قمر له ليالى” (“Amar Layali” lit. “The Night Belongs to the Moon”)[1] | Dawood Hosni | Hamed Morsi | ||
| “الواد ده ماله” (“The Valley Is His Wealth”) | Hamed Morsi | |||
| “يمينك سوق” (“The Right Market for You”) | Hamed Morsi[2] |
Reception
Khaled Fouad, editor at Al Jazeera Magazine, asked star Yousuf Shaaban on August 23, 2005, when he mentioned that he had appeared in 110 films: “What is the most prominent and important of these films?” Among the eight he mentioned was Abwab El-Lail. He stressed that when he got into cinema, the scene was very crowded:
It was not easy in any way, and there was fierce and hard-fought competition, but the truth is that it was honorable competition, so nobody was trying to block their colleague underhandedly. Nevertheless, it was a struggle to excel and I will never forget the struggles on wages, for example. Young actors would offer cut rates to directors to hire them over me, but I proved myself quickly at that age.[3]
External links
- El Cinema page
- Dhliz page
- Karohat page
- Youtube clip of “Amar Layali”
- Al-Misbah Cultural Center article by Wajih Nada on the private lives of actresses in Egyptian cinema
References
- ↑ "تحميل الاغنيه". Arab Melody. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ↑ "تحميل اغاني فيلم ابواب الليل حامد مرسي mp3 - mp4". Sm3ha Store. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ↑ Fouad, Khaled (August 23, 2005). "نقيب الممثلين يوسف شعبان يكشف لـ (مجلة الجزيرة ) العمل بالفن لم يكن من بين أحلامي". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
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