Chafika and Metwalli

  • Release Date: 1978
  • Type: Featured
  • Run time: 178 Minutes
  • Directed by: Aly Badrakhan
  • Produced by: Misr International Films
  • Screenplay: Salah Jaheen
  • Cast: Soad Hosny, Ahmed Mazhar, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Zaky, Gameel Rateb, Malak El Gamal, Younis Shalaby, Mahmoud El Gendy, Abdel Wares Asr, Shafik Galal, Naema El Sagheer
  • Cinematography: Abdel Halim Nasr
  • Art direction: Fakhry El Leithy
  • Editing: Said El Sheikh
  • Costume design: Khayrat Gad El Mawla, Ahmed El Kassar
  • Music: Fouad El Thahiry
  • Sound: Andrea Zandels
  • Subtitles: English, French
Synopsis:

Based on a folktale about brother and sister Shafika and Metwalli, the story revolves around the sister who escapes her petty existence in a small Upper Egyptian village and moves to the city. Shafika's poverty acquires her a bad reputation as a belly dancer and kept woman. Badrakhan gives the story an unconventional socio-political edge by setting it at the middle of the 19th century, when depraved Egyptian Pashas stopped at nothing to increase their wealth and influence.