A dancer's deathbed confession unravels Cairo's most scandalous family secrets.
Conditions worsen for the wealthy husband after he marries one of the dancers. He decides to divorce his wife, so he enrolls his daughter in a boarding school so that she can be away from her mother. The father loses his wealth and works in a menial job. Before the dancer dies, she calls her daughter Nemat and tells her where her father is. The father is accused of a crime and enters. Imprisoned for several months, the cabaret owner courtes the dancer's daughter, which creates trouble with his mistress, who suspects that he is her father, and the girl turns to a man who used to love her.
Acting
Faten Hamama's transformation from innocent to wrecked.
Costume
Cairo cabaret glamour vs. poverty rags contrast.
Direction
Hassan Al-Imam's operatic suffering sequences.
Director
Hassan Al-Imam
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film exemplifies 1950s Egyptian 'women's weepies,' where female stars like Hamama dominated box offices through suffering. The boarding school trope reflected real anxieties about Westernized education threatening traditional family structures.
Anwar Wagdi and Faten Hamama were real-life ex-husbands during filming, adding delicious tension to their scenes. Their divorce had made Cairo tabloids weeks before production.
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