ABSTRACT
Cairo Station/Bab al-Hadid (1958) is widely considered to be Youssef Chahine's signature piece. For Chahine (1926–2008), Egypt's most celebrated director, as well as most critics and viewers the filmic images became iconic. Yet because of its daring break with certain studio conventions, the film reaped negative reviews and public hostility upon its release. Despite its rediscovery in later years, it remains a film that is difficult to categorize, not quite neo-realist and not quite revolutionary, due to a strong melodramatic streak and a startling psycho-sexual, rather than political focus. This essay re-examines the classic film as the work of an artist struggling to bend genre conventions while exploring the kaleidoscope of a metropolis undergoing rapid sociological and political transformation. It explores the history of Cairo, and of Cairo's central rail station, the claustrophobic epicenter of the story - a site of constant motion, to and from the city, of youthful hope and, all too often, of shattered, and at times, demented dreams.
