Cairo Station (1958)

 Youssef Chahine's "Cairo Station"


Egyptian audiences weren't quite ready for the social commentary that came from Youssef Chahine's 1958 film "Cairo Station." This is precisely why the film did poorly in its homeland. However, throughout the decades, film appreciators have been kind to "Cairo Station." Its deeper-than-melodrama subtext is precisely what makes it stand out in the echelons of both Egyptian cinema and global cinema.

 The film centers on Qinawi, played by Chahine himself. Qinawi is a homeless, disabled newspaper peddler at Cairo Station. Qinawi, who keeps cut-outs of half-naked women in the shack that he sleeps in, is deeply sexually frustrated and mentally unstable. He becomes obsessed with Hannuma, a beautiful drink vendor. After she rejects his offer for marriage, Qinawi unravels and starts to behave violently. 

Perhaps one of the reasons for Egyptian audiences' discomfort is due to the dark and evil behavior of its protagonist. Audiences, especially audiences freely emerged from the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, wanted melodrama and comedies. What they got instead with "Cairo Station" is a disturbing story about an unwell individual acting out violently. 

However, these violent outbursts by our film's protagonist reveal the deeper frustrations with the changing landscape of Egyptian society. The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 overthrew the monarchy and left uncertainty in its wake. The new freedom of ideas that erupted are illustrated in "Cairo Station." Given that its central setting is the biggest train station in all of Egypt, it makes sense that this setting represents a confluence of free thinkers. Example of this would be the women's rights movement that is shown gathering at one of the areas in the station or the workers' union that Hannuma's fiance, Abu, is attempting to create. With this disillusion of the Egyptian monarchy, ideas around democracy, feminism, socialism, and other incoming ideas of thought started to ferment in the social atmosphere of Eyptian culture.

Qinawi, our protagonist, acts as the antithesis to this liberation of ideas. The lifelong suppression of sexuality, of workers' rights, and of women's liberties has created this mentally unwell individual who acts against these concepts. "Cairo Station" offers modern audiences a snapshot of the bitterness brewing at the heart of a society that is dramatically changing in the post-revolutionary Egyptian landscape.

"Cairo Station," due to its complex gaze at its contemporary issues, has retrospectively been lauded as one of the greatest films in Egyptian history. Certainly, it can be considered Chahine's monument in his vast filmography. But, what it signifies is Chahine's unique ability to expand the boundaries of Egyptian cinema and global cinema as a whole. Two years before Hitchcock disturbed audiences with a violent an deranged central figure in "Psycho," Chahine was taking this idea out for a test drive, pushing the limits to the kind of psychosis and mental unsteadiness an audience can share with its protagonist.



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