The Beginning and the End (1960 film)

The Beginning and the End (Egyptian Arabic: بداية و نهاية‎) is a 1960 Egyptian film directed by Salah Abouseif and based on the novel by the same name. It was the first film adapted from a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz.

The Beginning and the End
Directed bySalah Abouseif
Written byNaguib Mahfouz
StarringOmar Sharif
Sanaa Gamil
Music byFouad El Zahery
Release date
  • 1960 (1960)
CountryEgypt
LanguageArabic

At the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival in 1961, the film was nominated for the Grand Prix award.[1] For her role as Nefisah, Sanaa Gamil won the award for Best Supporting Actress.[1][2]

Plot

The film portrays the lives of the members of an Egyptian family, who are three brothers, their sister Nefisah (Sanaa Gamil) and their mother (Amina Rizk), after the family's patriarch's death.

The older brother Sultan (Farid Shawki) turns to crime, while the younger brother, Hassan, leaves Cairo to work in another city. The youngest brother, Hassanein (Omar Sharif), aspires to be an officer, and in order to achieve that he puts his family into financial difficulties.

Nefisah falls in love and has an affair with the local grocer's son (Salah Mansour) and when he doesn't marry her, she works as a prostitute to support her brother.

The tragic ending of the film is one of the most memorable in Egyptian films; Nefisah gets arrested by the police and her brother Hassanien bails her out. After an intense argument between her and her brother, Nefisah commits suicide by throwing herself in the Nile followed by her brother, who throws himself in too.

Cast

Music by Fouad El Zahery.

References
  1. "2nd Moscow International Film Festival (1961)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
  2. "Al Ahram weekly article on Sanaa Gamil". Archived from the original on 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
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