FILM000060

In thoroughly entertaining fashion, Nasser 56 gives an idea of what it means for a small Middle Eastern nation to dare to defy the world's superpowers, the USA and its Western allies in particular. That's exactly what Egypt's then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser did in July 1956, when he boldly orchestrated the nationalization of the Suez Canal, the construction of which had cost the lives of 120,000 Egyptians from a population of only 4 million a little more than a century earlier.

Director Mohamed Fadel and writer Mahfouz Abd Al Rahman, who shrewdly film in black and white so as to match vintage newsreel footage, present Nasser (an effectively understated Ahmad Zaki) as a modest, selfless paragon dedicated to his nation's self-determination and devoted to his family. They pull off the necessary trick of making suspenseful a pivotal incident, the outcome of which is part of modern world history.

1996

142 mins

Arab Film Distribution

Drama

Arabic

Egypt

http://arabcinemadb.alc.manchester.ac.uk/Public/Film/Show/FILM000060