Al-Ard (The Land, 1969)
Director: Youssef Chahine
Image via the Dubai International Film Festival
Based on a popular novel by Abdel Rahman al-Sharqawi, the film narrates the conflict between peasants and their landlord in the 1930s, and explores the complex relationship between individual interests and collective responses to oppression. The central character is Mohamed Abousweylam (Mahmoud Melegy), who is trying to unite the other peasants to object the construction of a highway that will split the land into two parts. When the situation escalates, the government sends Special Forces to control the village and declare a curfew. As Abousweylam continues to lead the opposition, the officers decide to drag him by a running horse across the land to terrorize the rest of the people.
