We close Jameel’s Summer Cinema, in collaboration with The Culturist Film Club, with a screening of Youssef Chahine’s The Blazing Sun and to celebrate the centennial of one of the most critically acclaimed auteurs of Egyptian and Arab cinema. 

THE BLAZING SUN / صراع في الوادي / SERA’A FIL WADI
Youssef Chahine, 1954, 110 min

In pre-1952 Luxor, Ahmed — a freshly graduated agricultural engineer — uses his newfound knowledge to help his village’s impoverished peasants upgrade their sugar cane crop, which threatens the interests of their feudalist landlord, Taher Pasha. Seeking revenge, the Pasha and his conniving nephew, Riad, devise a plan to flood the peasants’ fields, spoiling the crop and setting off a murderous chain of events. The resulting conflict is further complicated by the star-crossed romance between Ahmed and the Pasha’s daughter, Amal, and Riad’s scheme to force her into marrying him. Starring Faten Hamama and Omar Sharif.

“Released two years after the Egyptian revolution, traces of neo-realism are detected in Chahine’s first socially-conscious work, one that openly discussed the growing rift between the decaying aristocracy and the rising working class.” — Joseph Fahim

Audiences are invited to engage in collective viewing and enjoy refreshments available throughout the evening.

Screenings are free to attend. Registration is required.

Curated by Hind Mezaina, founder of The Culturist Film Club.

Hind Mezaina is an artist, film curator and writer from Dubai. Her interests lie in cinema, cities, visual culture, collective memory and archives. As an artist she works primarily in analogue photography and lately with moving image. She has been exhibited locally and internationally, including Art Dubai, Abu Dhabi Art, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, Jameel Arts Centre, Nadežda Petrović Art Gallery, London Short Film Festival, Alternative Film/Video, and Safar Film Festival. As a film curator, she has programmed screenings for art institutions in the UAE including Louvre Abu Dhabi, NYUAD Art Gallery, Sharjah Art Foundation, The Africa Institute, and Jameel Arts Centre. She launched The Culturist Film Club in 2022 and hosts screenings at various venues in Dubai. The film club is an offshoot of her blog theculturist.com which she started in 2009 where you can find her writings.  www.hindmezaina.com