Henry Barakat

The Plot:
The film is set around 1914 when Lebanon was under the Ottoman Empire rule. The empire enslaved men to work for free. Abdou goes to get Adla the engagement ring but he’s arrested with others and are taken to cut lumber. Meanwhile the Ottomans prevent the wheat from arriving to certain villages because they want to defuse the ongoing resistance operations led by Abou Ahmed. Adla travels to where some say Abdou is held prisoner and she meets with Abou Ahmed. She along other villagers start helping the resistance get the wheat to the people. When they accomplish their mission, Abou Ahmed, freed Abdou and others escape because now they’re wanted, but on a promise to return and to continue fighting.Read More »

Leila Mourad one of the Orient’s Divas stars in this classic musical romance as a poor girl who marries a wealthy young man while others try to break them apart.Read More »

Bint El-Harass (Arabic: بنت الحارس) AKA The Guard Daughter is a Lebanese musical-drama directed by the Egyptian director Henry Barakat (known for Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer) story, dialog and musical score by the Rahbani brothers Assi & Mansour and starring the greatest voice ever lived Fairuz.
This is the third and maybe the last film starring Fairuz after Biya el-Khawatim AKA The Ring Seller and Safar Barlek and the second collaboration between the director and the Rahbani brothers and Fairuz.Read More »

A troubadour singer falls in love with a daughter of a rich farmer and they are torn between love and tradition. This is a love story similar to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet taking place in the Egyptian Countryside.

The Arabic title of the film is حسن ونعيمة.Read More »

Quote:
This is a classical melodrama from Egypt and nicely shot in black and white. It is a tale of relations between man and woman, death, revenge and forgiveness. To watch a film is not just the moving images it is also a opportunity to travel in time and space. Here one is moved back too Egypt in the fifties. I do believe that with the travel back in time there is also and chance to learn something about norms and values, the society and how the relations between people was at that particular time in that particular environment. Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer (1959) was chosen as one of the best Egyptian films of all time, and it also stars Faten Hamama and she is maybe the number one female screen icon of Egyptian cinema. This film is based on a novel by Taha Hussein and he is considered to be one of the finest and most influential writers of modern Egyptian literature.Read More »