The Blazing Sun (1954)
1h 56m | PG-13
A wealthy landlord floods and destroys a village on purpose to prevent the people living there from making a profit off their crops. What he doesn't know is that his own daughter, Amal, is in love with Ahmed, a young man from the village.
Director: Youssef Chahine
Studio: Nile Cinema Company
Genre: Drama, Romance
Video: 720p
Cast
Faten Hamama
as Amal
Omar Sharif
as Ahmed
Zaki Rostom
as Taher Pasha
Farid Shawqy
as Riyad
Abdel Warith Assir
as Saber
Hamdy Ghaith
as Selim
Reviews
Omar Sharif ("Ahmed") returns to his Egyptian village to try and help the local agrarian population improve their lot. This does not suit the local Pasha (Zaki Rustum) and so he sets about sabotaging their ambitions to grow and harvest their own crop of sugar cane. What follows is a hybrid love story/crime thriller as the Pasha's daughter - the gorgeous Faten Hamamah returns home after 8 years and begins to rekindle the feelings she had as a child for the hero; whilst becoming embroiled in an ever deepening crisis that only increases as a local Sheikh, who has assumed who was responsible for the destruction of the crop, is slain. It is easy to see why Sharif was snapped up by Hollywood - he is a very good looking man who oozes charisma, and there is a certain natural quality in the scenes he plays - especially with Hamamah. The ending let's it down a bit - I felt that the story sort of ran out of steam, but great onsite photography and a pacily directed (by Youssef Chahine) small cast make this well worth watching.