Directed by Youssef Chahine • 1969 • Egypt
Starring Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Ezzat el-Alaili, Nagwa Ibrahim

Adapted from a classic novel by Abd al-Rahman Sharqawi, this howl of rage against social injustice is one of director Youssef Chahine’s most influential works, crowned by a career-best performance from its star Mahmoud el-Meliguy. Set in the early 1930s, THE LAND urgently portrays the struggle of rural peasants whose livelihood is threatened by a greedy landlord’s scheme to limit their water supply, showing both the power and limitations of resistance in the face of class exploitation. Composed in vivid, sensuous images and shot through with revolutionary fervor, this landmark of Arab cinema—the inaugural entry in Chahine’s so-dubbed Trilogy of Defeat—is a work of both immense humanism and searing political conviction, informed by the burning sensation of collective failure in the wake of the Six-Day War.