Gossip Over the Nile

The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Naguib Mahfouz. The story takes place just behind the Six-Day War of 1967. A group of Egyptians from different trades and different circles meets every evening on a houseboat on the Nile. Those gatherings turn around drugs and become a way of escaping what is real. Nobody wants to talk about what is happening in the country, and what is said is always evasive. The film offers this escape not as entertainment but as a sign of collapse. The state of educated circles in Egypt after defeat is the real subject. Emad Hamdy and Adel Adham take the leads, with Mervat Amin also in the cast. Hussein Kamal’s hundred and twenty two minute Egyptian film was completed in 1971.