The Land

Date:: 20 Jul 2025, 18:00–20:20

Age:

Type:

Place:: Cinema

Age restrictions: 18+

Egypt a century ago and the conflicts tearing it apart come to life in the grandiose drama of the father of Arab cinema. Screening as part of the film programme Tashkent-1970. The Festival That Never Was.

Al-ard
1969, Youssef Chahine

Egypt
130 minutes, Egyptian Arabic with Russian subtitles

Starring: Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Yehia Chahine, Ezzat El Alaili, Hamdy Ahmed

1920s. A corrupt elder announces to the fellahs that from now on they are only allowed to water their land for five days. This means crops will almost certainly die. A petition to the Prime Minister is intercepted by a landowner who plans to build a road through the fields to his estate. A popular uprising is inevitable.

Shot from The Land, 1969

The capitalist corruption and political stasis that we see in Chahine’s film have lost none of their potency; and neither has The Land.

— David Heslin, Senses of Cinema

Youssef Chahine has been a central figure in Arab cinema for half a century. The Land is one of his grandest creations, epic in scope, virtuosic in its mise-en-scène and as powerful as Italian neo-realism in the empathy for its characters.

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