The Blazing Sun (1954)

 Youssef Chahine's "The Blazing Sun"

Although "The Blazing Sun" was not Omar Sharif's film debut, it was the film that made him a star. In fact, the film also stars another gem of Egyptian cinema, Faten Hamama, who is otherwise known as "The First Lady of Egyptian and Arabic Cinema." The director of the film, Youssef Chahine, has worked with both of them before. He worked with Sharif on "Devil of the Sahara," which was Sharif's film debut. He also worked with Hamama on 1950's "Father Amin."

"The Blazing Sun" centers on Ahmed Salam, an engineer and the son of a sugar cane farm owner. After increasing the production of the peasant farmer's sugar cane, wealthy land owner Taher Pasha is threatened by the peasant's prosperity. He floods their land and ruins their crops. After the Sheikh privately accuses Pasha of doing this, he has him murdered and frame's Ahmed's father. Ahmed attempts to restore his father's innocence with the help of Pasha's daughter, Amal.

The film deals with economic injustice and the unravelling of social morality. I felt that these moral concerns and social issues are dealt through human drama. To me, this is the most effective way to comment on socio-political issues.

I felt that the relationships between the various characters is the drama at the heart of the story. It is the more interesting than the socio-economics at play and the moral questions that arise. Chahine really has a knack for wrapping big-picture issues around human relationships and dramas. "The Blazing Sun" really pulls you in with the complex situations that arise when a son has to save his father, a daughter has to realize the corruption of her father, and a businessman must face his own erosion of his only relationship. Through these dynamics, I absolutely engaged with the film.