My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)
Youssef Chahine, the director, plays a poor and lame newspaper vendor who lives in and around the busy Cairo train station. He falls in love with a voluptuous girl who makes her living hawking sodas in stopped trains. He attempts to win her with a gold necklace, but she rejects him in favor of a macho union organizer. The news stories of a recent murder plant the same ideas in his own mind. He buys a knife but his plans are botched. The disorganized plot covers everything from union politics to repressed sexuality, in a style very reminiscent of Italian realism. The story of Qinawi reminded me of the hunchback of Notre Dame, whose disfigurement also leads to unrequited love and ultimately tragedy.
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