Country: Egypt
Year: 1972
Duration: 100'
Young Ahmad has fled from the city of Jal Isma'iliyya after the Israelis occupied the Sinai, and goes to Cairo. He has a relationship with the prostitute Na'ima and with the homosexual painter Ra'uf. After being a helpless witness of the girl's death, Ahmad decides to return to his home town, which by now is almost completely abandoned.
"With Hammam el Malatili I wanted to show that Egypt's military defeat in 1967 was in part due to our moral dissolution. I also wanted to underline the fact that defeat is not necessarily the end of everything. The innocent main character feels helpless in the face of rampant corruption; he is in love with a girl whose destiny is sealed, who is killed, rather than saved, by her family. The hammam (the public baths) is a microcosm of our society. The film ends with an incitement to continue fighting" (Salah Abu Seif, in an interview with Samir Farid, published in the "Cairo Film Club Bulletin", October 10, 1977).
Biography
film director
Salah Abu Seif
Salah Abu Seif (Cairo, 1915-1996). Director, producer, author and editor, he began as a movie critic, and debuted in cinema as director's assistant for the film Tita Wong, directed by Amina Mohammad in 1937. He worked as editor for Studio Misr and has published theoretical texts on cinema.
FILMOGRAFIA
Al muassalat fi al Iskindiriyya (Il traffico ad Alssandria, doc., 1940), Yawm fi mu'askar hindi (Una giornata in un campo militare indiano, doc., 1940), Nimra 6 (Numero 6, cm, 1942), Daiman fi qalbi (Per sempre nel mio cuore, 1946), Al muntaqim (Il vendicatore, 1947), Mughamarat Antar wa Abla (Le avventure di Antar e Abla, 1948), Al saqr (Il falcone, 1950), El usstta Hasan (Il maestro Hasan, 1952), Raiyya we Skena (Raiyya e Skena, 1953), Al wahsh (Il mostro, 1954), Shabab imra'a (La gioventù di una donna, 1956), Il fitiwwa (Lo spaccone, 1957), La anam (Non dormo, 1957), Al tariq al masdud (La strada senza uscita, cm, 1958), Ana hurra (Sono una donna libera, 1959), Baina al samà wa al ard (Tra cielo e terra, 1959), Law'atu al hubb (Le sofferenze dell'amore, 1960), Al banat wa al saif (Le ragazze e l' estate, film a episodi, co-regia Izzuddin Zul Fiqar e Fattin Abdu Al Wahab, 1960), Bidaya wa nihaya (L'nizio e la fine, 1960), La tuttfi'i al shams (Non spegnere il sole, 1961), La waqta li al hubb (Non c' è tempo per l' amore, 1963), Al Qahira 30 (Il Cairo 30, 1966), Al zawgia al thaniya (La seconda moglie, 1967), Al qadiyya 68 (Il caso numero 68, 1968), 3 nisa'in (3 donne, film a episodi, co-regia Henry Barakat e Mahmud Zul Fiqar, 1969), Hammam el Malatili (I bagni di Malatili, 1972), Sana ula hubb (Primo anno d' amore, film a episodi, co-regia Niazi Mustafa, Atif Salem, Hilmi Rafla e Kamal Al Sheikh, 1976), El saqqa mat (Il portatore d'acqua è morto, 1977), Al Qadisiyya (1980), Al bidaya (L'inizio, 1986), Al muwatin massri (Il cittadino egiziano, 1991), Al sayyid Kaf (Il signor Kaf, 1994).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Salah Abu Seif.
Plot: Isma'il Walii Al Din.
Screenplay: Muhsin Zaiyd, Salah Abu Seif.
Dialogues: Muhsin Zaiyd.
Director of photography: Abdu Al Mun'im Bahansi.
Art director: Ibrahim Sayyid Ahmad.
Costume designer: Ibrahim Sayyid Ahmad.
Editor: Muhii Abdu Al Giawad.
Music: Giamal Salama.
Sound: Nassri Abdu Al Nur.
Cast: Shams Al Barudi, Mohammad Al Arabi, Yusuf Sha'ban, Ni'mat Mukhtar, Faiyz Halawa, Ibrahim Abdu Al Raziq, Na'ima Al Saghir, Sa'id Khalil.
Production company: Aflam Salah Abu Seif.
Italian distribution: Aflam Ihab Al Laithi.
Plot: Isma'il Walii Al Din.
Screenplay: Muhsin Zaiyd, Salah Abu Seif.
Dialogues: Muhsin Zaiyd.
Director of photography: Abdu Al Mun'im Bahansi.
Art director: Ibrahim Sayyid Ahmad.
Costume designer: Ibrahim Sayyid Ahmad.
Editor: Muhii Abdu Al Giawad.
Music: Giamal Salama.
Sound: Nassri Abdu Al Nur.
Cast: Shams Al Barudi, Mohammad Al Arabi, Yusuf Sha'ban, Ni'mat Mukhtar, Faiyz Halawa, Ibrahim Abdu Al Raziq, Na'ima Al Saghir, Sa'id Khalil.
Production company: Aflam Salah Abu Seif.
Italian distribution: Aflam Ihab Al Laithi.