The Land / El Ard

• Release Date: 1969
• Type: Featured
• Run time: 130 Minutes
• Directed by: Youssef Chahine
• Produced by: Al Mouasasa Al Misriya Lel Cinema
• Screenplay: Hassan Fouad
• Cast: Mahmoud El Meliguy, Nagwa Ibrahim, Hamdy Ahmed, Tawfik El Dekn, Salah El Saadny, Yehia Chahine
• Cinematography: Abdel Halim Nasr
• Art direction: Salah Gaber
• Editing: Rashida Abdel Salam
• Music: Ali Ismail, Nasry Abdel Noor
• Sound: Hassan Al Touni
• Subtitles: English, French
• Scenario: Hassan Fouad

Synopsis:

One of Chahine’s most enduring classics, the Land details the struggle of a group of peasant farmers in the 1930s to protect their fields and their livelihood against a corrupt pasha interested only in self – aggrandizement. Adapted by Chahine from a novel published shortly after the abolition of monarchy by Egypt’s 1952 revolution, the Land offers a full blooded narrative of political struggle and sweeping nationalist emotions and is a rallying cry for an Arab world demoralised by Israeli expansion in the 1960’s. HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE