Cairo Station aka باب الحديد‎ Bāb al-Ḥadīd (1958) Egyptian Noir Masterpiece

"Dark character-driven film with psychosexual undertones" 

(chaos-rampant (IMDb) 19 September 2009)

Directed by Youssef Chahine. 

Written by Mohamed Abu Youssef and, Abdel Hay Adib Cinematography was by Alevise Orfanelli, and the Music was by Fouad El-Zahry.

With this film Youssef Chahine was able to give us an intriguing view into Egyptian working class society circa the late 1950s.

The film stars Farid Shawqi as Abu Siri a railroad porter, Hind Rostom as Hannuma, an illegal station soda hawker, Youssef Chahine as Qinawi a naive, lame, mentally unbalanced newspaper boy, Hassan el Baroudi as Madbouli the news stand operator, Abdel Aziz Khalil as Abu Gaber, Naima Wasfy (Wasfi) as Hallawatim.

Farid Shawqi as Abu Siri 

Hind Rostom as Hannuma

Director Youssef Chahine as Qinawi

Hassan el Baroudi as Madbouli

With this film Youssef Chahine was able to give us an intriguing view into Egyptian working class society circa the late 1950s.

Madbouli a good hearted man, comes upon Qinawi a poor, disabled, beggar laying in the gutter outside the ain Cairo Station. Madbouli's voice over tells the tale in flashback.

Madbouli operates the newsstand and gives him a job as a newsboy selling papers and finds him a shack to crash at. Hannuma is a flirty, bold, sexy, yet shabby, denizen of the station who belongs to a gang of women who descend upon the various departing trains hawking cool drinks out of decorative buckets to the passengers.

One part of Qinawi's job is to wander the stations waiting room selling newspapers and magazines to travelers, another part is to also walk down the platforms and train cabin corridors to sell reading matter to the passengers on the departing. 

During his wanderings Qinawi meets and becomes infatuated with the  women who happen to catch his eye and he becomes especially obsessed with Hannuma.  Qinawi's shack is festooned on all four walls with cut outs of scantily clad from girly magazines. 

Hannuma is soon to marry Abu, a baggage porter but Qinawi is oblivious to this reality. He begins to follow and spy upon Hannuna. He watches her bathing by a steam locomotive water spout, them follows her into her the abandoned passenger car she calls home.

Hannuma is pissed but also flattered by Qinawis puppy dog devotion to her. She chases him out of the car telling him that Abu will skin him alive.

Qinawi, terrified, runs off through the railyard chased by the station urchins who scream and throw rocks at him. 

Meanwhile, a side story has Abu busy trying to organize his fellow porters into a union for better working conditions. Opposing him is the old style system of cronyism, and nepotism. 

Things go Noirsville when Hannuma laughs at Qinawi after he proposes marriage to her telling her that he will build her a house by the sea in his home village. She basically states that, why should she marry him, he doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. She is going to marry Abu. The impressionable Qinawi, inspired by a news story about a trunk murderer, buys a knife and plans a similar fate for Hannuma.

Noirsville

The director Youssef Chahine does an excellent job both with directing the film and with playing the character Qinawi. Hind Rostom is alluring, compelling, and quite entertaining as the "belle" of the cadre of female hawkers. Farid Shawqi and Hassan el Baroudi bring dignity to their portrals. A great effort worth seeking out. Screencaps are from a Youtube screener. 8/10