Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1976 • Egypt
Starring Shoukry Sarhan, Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Huda Sultan

One of Youssef Chahine’s most daring works (both thematically and formally), this shattering allegorical musical drama charts the shockwaves that ripple through a family when the youngest son—a formerly idealistic political activist—returns from prison a changed man, now unable to stand up to his older brother’s tyranny. Scripted and scored by the influential poet Salah Jahin, RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON uses the framework of the biblical tale to comment provocatively on the fading of Arab unity and the shattered dreams of a grandstanding Arab republic, while simultaneously subverting and reinventing the Arab musical.