Bab el Hadid
1958 / 77m - Egypt
Crime, Drama
1.5*/5.0*
Cairo Station poster

Watches

June 22, 2020

1.5*/5.0*

I'm not too familiar with Egyptian cinema, this sounded like a good place to start. And the film showed some promise too, though you have to wait until the very end before it comes to full fruition. Sadly the road there is much closer to what I'd feared it would be, and isn't something I thoroughly enjoyed.

The introduction is mostly spent on capturing the mood and energy around a train station. It's a bustling environment and while the noise levels aren't that pleasant, they are an essential part of the setting. The problem is that once the film shifts its focus to the characters, the noise doesn't really go away. It makes for a tiring experience.

The dialogue and drama isn't that interesting either, luckily the cinematography is decent and there are a couple of scenes that stand out from the rest, but it wasn't until the finale that the film had truly grabbed my attention. That was a case of too little, too late though. Not a terrible film, but it left me rather cold.