Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).
Jean-Marie Straub
Director, Writer
Danièle Huillet
Director, Writer
Danièle Huillet
Narrator (segment A) (voice)
Bahgat Elnadi
Narrator (segment B) (voice) (as Bahgat el Nadi)
Gerard Samaan
Narrator (segment B) (voice)
Varda par Agnès79%
In the Realms of the Unreal71%
Tricked: The Documentary61%
Heart of a Dog65%
Daguerréotypes73%
Cameraperson67%
Love, Marilyn66%
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds74%
Public Speaking70%
Hitchcock/Truffaut72%
McQueen74%
Fuck64%
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return67%
Making 'The Shining'71%
Woman77%
The Walking Dead: The Return73%
A Plastic Ocean75%
Sherman's March67%
Les Plages d'Agnès77%
I Am Ali67%
