The Nightingale's Prayer

The Nightingale's Prayer
Doaa al-Karawan DVD cover
Directed by	Henry Barakat
Produced by	Barakat Film
Written by	Taha Hussein (novel) Youssef Gohar Henry Barakat
Starring	Faten Hamama Ahmed Mazhar
Music by	Andrè Ryder
Cinematography	Wahid Farid
Release date(s)	1954 (1954)
Running time	126 minutes
Country	Egypt
Language	Arabic

The Nightingale's Prayer (Arabic: دعاء الكروان‎, translit. Doaa al-Karawan  listen (help·info)) is a classical 1959 Egyptian drama film directed by Henry Barakat and based on a novel by the prominent writer Taha Hussein. It stars Faten Hamama and Ahmed Mazhar.

In 1996, during the Egyptian Cinema centennial, this film was selected one of the best 150 Egyptian film productions. It received an award of recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.^[1] It was also entered into the 10th Berlin International Film Festival.^[2]

Plot

Amna is a young woman that witnesses the death of her older sister by her uncle, who had abandoned her family and left them with no support. She understands from her mother that her sister deserves to die because she dishonors the family. Amna doesn't agree. She believes that her uncle should be blamed for their conditions. She seeks revenge from the engineer who swayed her sister and lied to her thus causing her death. Amna moves to his house to work as a maid and tries to poison him several times, but all her plans fail. She discovers it's impossible to kill him. This engineer starts to approach her, but she resists him, which makes him even more attracted to her.

The poor girl thought that by not resisting him anymore and pretending to love him, she would be able to destroy his life. What she didn't expect was that she herself would fall in love with him. She plans to dig a hole and trick him into falling in it. She tries to but fails and both fall in the hole. She faces him with the truth, and reveals who she is. She decides to leave him as she knows that her plan fails. Her uncle finds out what she had done and decides to kill her because she has ruined the family's reputation. As she steps out of the engineer's house, she sees her uncle and immediately realizes that he has bad intentions, but the engineer sees him too, and takes the bullet in his back to protect her and save her life.

Cast

• Faten Hamama as Amna.
• Ahmed Mazhar as the engineer.
• Amina Rizk
• Zahrat El-Ola as Henady.
• Abdel Alim as Khattab.
• Mimi Chakib as Zanooba.
• Raga El Geddawy as Khadeega.

See also

• List of submissions to the 32nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Egyptian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

1. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
2. ^ "IMDB.com: Awards for Doaa al-Karawan". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0231477/awards. Retrieved 2010-01-15. 

Notes

• "Movie details". Allmovie. http://www.answers.com/topic/nightingale-s-prayer. Retrieved December 4, 2006. 
• "Summary". UNC libraries. http://www.lib.unc.edu/house/mrc/films/full.php?film_id=11033. Retrieved December 4, 2006. 
• "Film information" (in Arabic). Official site. http://www.fatenhamama.com/Arabic/films/Doaa_Alkarawan.html. Retrieved February 2, 2007. 
• "Film summary". Official site. http://www.fatenhamama.com/English/Doaa_Alkarawan.html. Retrieved December 4, 2006. 
• "Film summary" (in Arabic). Adab wa Fan. http://www.adabwafan.com/display/product.asp?id=37903. Retrieved 2007-02-02. 

External links

• The Nightingale's Prayer at the Internet Movie Database