Cairo 30

The Unknown Man

1965

Safia is a beautiful girl from the countryside, who is loved by two men: Rashwan, the mayor's son, and Hamid, the poor young man. Her father approves her marriage to Rashwan, but Rashwan soon changes his mind, as he tries to get close to Hamdiya, Hamid's sister.

A Widow with Three Daughters

1965

When Mafouz dies, his partner Diab seizes his share, which leaves Mahfouz's family living in poverty. Gawdat, Zahra's fiancé, sleeps with her after she surrenders in the hope that they will get married quickly, but his mother forces him to leave Zahra after their financial situation deteriorates.

Hobson's Choice

1954

A widower refuses to let his three daughters marry in order to avoid paying settlements, so they'll just have to outsmart him.

Risiko für Weihnachtsmänner

1968

The Train

1964

As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

Arena

1967

In one of the occupied European cities, the commandant of the garrison gathers a troupe of circus performers. Coming from different countries, they are in the humiliating position of people forced to serve their enslavers. Many of them, recruited from camps and workhouses, were quite content with their lot. Only after a chain of subsequent events, the artists raise an uprising. Unarmed people are not able to resist the arrived guards. They die, but at the cost of their lives they regain their lost human dignity.

Roma

2018

In 1970s Mexico City, two domestic workers help a mother of four while her husband is away for an extended period of time.

Ikiru

1952

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.