Malatily Bathhouse
Malaṯily Bathhouse (Template:Lang-ar "Ĥamam al-Malaṯily") is a 1973 Egyptian film directed by Salah Abu Seif. The main actors are Shams al-Baroudi and Yusuf Shåban. It is adapted from a novel by Ismåeel Walieddin. Samar Habib, author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations, said "that the title of the film can "be easily translated" as Malatily Bathhouse."[1] The opening credits of the film have the English title An Egyptian Tragedy. Habib said that it was "strangely translated" into An Egyptian Tragedy.[1]
Plot
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The beginning shows what Habib calls a "long scenic tribute" to Cairo and to the general city.[1] Habib said that the director "visually implies the polymorphous vagaries of the city in which an immoral underworld is bound to flourish.[2]
The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, get an apartment for his parents, and obtain a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a male homosexual. Ali later has Ahmad work as his accountant. Ahmad eventually has sexual intercourse with Naåeema. Ahmad finds a lack of employment opportunities and becomes associated with the bathhouse, so his original goals are not met.[3]
Habib said "There appears to be a sensitive awareness that foreign viewers of the film should not regard its content as conspiring with or approving of the morally loose behaviour of the libertines it depicts."[1] Habib argues that this seems to depict Egyptian society in a "state of disarray" likely to be occurring during the Suez Crisis.[3]
Cast and characters
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One character, Raouf, is a male homosexual. Habib said that Raouf "subverts popular understanding of homosexuality by being unable to be brought back into the norm of heterosexual desires."[1] Raouf makes advances towards Ahmad, who cannot comprehend them.[3]
Ali is the owner of the bathhouse. He gives male prostitutes to Raouf.[3]
See also
References
- Habib, Samar. Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations. Routledge, July 18, 2007. ISBN 0415956730, 9780415956734.