The Passage

Sherif Arafa's 2019 Egyptian film follows a commando platoon in the period immediately after the Six-Day War. The unit, under Captain Nour, is ordered to hold a position deep in the desert and remains there until the start of the War of Attrition. The film was mounted as one of the most expensive Egyptian productions, and the battle sequences were built accordingly. It was shot with military cooperation; the equipment, the scale and the choreography are the visible result of that support. The narrative presents the defeat of 1967 not as a loss but as the beginning of a recovery. That is where the film is openly one-sided; the other side barely appears as individual characters and no historical argument is entertained. Who it's for: those who like Egyptian war cinema and large-scale action. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a many-sided reading of history; the film stays with the official account.