Sera fi el-Nil

Interesting, well-made drama from Egypt with Omar Shariff before he made it big in the West. Although a bit slow by today's standards, the story unfolds in a pretty entertaining fashion, and thus, it is accessible to Western audiences. The plot concerns a a voyage on the Nile from Luxor to Cairo, filled with intrigue. Characters are well written and believable, the plot is solid. It's a pity international cinema is so unknown in the West. Egyptian cinema is one of the most prolific in the Middle East. Struggle on the Nile is a good drama, with a slight "film-noirish" quality to it. It's great to see such good cinema in late 50's Egypt. Give it a watch if you catch it.

There's a pretty explicit theme of modernization--the story springboard is that a group of Upper Egypt boatmen pool their resources to buy a fast motorized barge--with the central character (Omar Sharif) coming of age in parallel, as he narrowly evades temptation and trickery; this was Nasser's Egypt, so it's probably fair to see this as a parable about combining economic development with social justice and shunning Western-style decadence. Unfortunately this means the plot resolution is Put the Blame on Mame--a sexy temptress stands in for the fleshpots of the West--but it would probably be unreasonable to expect a more original view of women. Nice camera work, lighting setups and editing; definitely worth seeing.