"Either you keep your mouths shut or you die."
"I'd rather die."
They're very different films, but perhaps this would fit in a trilogy about the struggle for water resources, alongside Chinatown (1974), and Dry Summer (1964). There is a larger story here too, one that's specific to a time and place, 1930's Egypt, but also universal and timeless. Does anything symbolize the rich taking wealth away from the masses so directly than the bey in this story diverting water to his own fields, or him subverting the will of the people by building a road over their land for his own personal benefit rather than pushing for more water for the peasants? We also see how a local religious figure plays a role in wielding power over the people and maintaining the status quo. "God help us," he intones repeatedly during one crisis, when it's clear that it's only the people who can help themselves.
What makes the plight of the fellahin (peasant farmers) particularly humiliating is that some of them fought in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution (the one played by Mahmoud el-Meliguy in particular), and yet now continue to be oppressed. The disillusionment is palpable, and el-Meliguy is fantastic here. Such solidarity is required to have any hope of fighting the power in all of its various layers, e.g. The effendi, mayor, bey, prime minister, king, and the English, whose presence is still felt, but we see how hard that is, as naturally the poor begin squabbling amongst themselves out of desperation. It's one telling moment all the villagers all come together to get a cow out of a well, a model of cooperation, and in another, a man sells out the villagers in order to have the road be diverted around his own land. We also see one woman who feels forced to sell her affections for produce, e.g. For two cucumbers, come to a grisly end.
The story is a little rough around the edges relative to the heroine (Nagwa Ibrahim), as initially we see her trying to seduce a pre-pubescent boy because he's the son of a wealthy man and might offer a possible escape out of life in the country, but then shift to a farmer (Ezzat El Alaili) who has been pushing hard for her hand without a lot of insight into her motivations, other than seeing he wants to protect her. The boy and the father who was teaching him poetry abruptly disappear, but perhaps they provided their narrative purpose, illustrating the class difference and how the pocket money the father gives him is quite a sum compared to those struggling to pay food debts. Similarly, we hear student protesters chanting "Down with colonialism," probably representing the 1935-36 protests, but it's notable that they're not shown and seem completely disconnected from the struggles of the peasants on the land.
Certainly a meaningful story, one told very well by Chahine and including some beautiful images, but a little depressing.
