The Sin

Aziza and her husband Abdullah are seasonal labourers who move from field to field. While she is gathering potatoes Aziza is attacked by a watchman. Her husband is ill and she can tell nobody what happened; she hides the pregnancy, and after the birth, in her desperation, the child dies and she loses her own life as well. The village blames her first, and then the seasonal workers gather around her name and she becomes a symbol for people claiming their rights. Adapted from a novel by Yusuf Idris, the film turns the question of where the shame lies on its head and shows the wall between settled villagers and travelling workers. Faten Hamama appears in Henry Barakat’s hundred and five minute Egyptian film, completed in 1965.