The Dupes · 18.02.2025 19H @Cinema RITCS · BXL

Tickets available online at Cinema RITCS website

The Dupes

Tewfik Saleh, 1972, 107′

In Arabic, with English subtitles

The Dupes (Al-Makhdūʿūn), directed by Tewfik Saleh, is a 1972 masterpiece restored in 2023 by the World Cinema Project of The Film Foundation. This politically charged adaptation of Men in the Sun (1963), a novel by renowned Palestinian writer and resistance leader Ghassan Kanafani, recounts a harrowing tale of exile, displacement, and betrayal. Set in 1950s Iraq, the film follows three Palestinian refugees of different generations as they attempt to cross into Kuwait, the so-called “Promised Land.” Concealed in the steel tank of a smuggler’s truck, the men cling to fragile hope, but their journey lays bare the brutal realities of dispossession and systemic injustice. The film’s critical lens on Arab leadership led to censorship and boycotts, yet its unyielding message continues to resonate today. As conflicts persist and the Palestinian cause remains urgent, The Dupes is more relevant than ever. The film reminds us of the enduring struggle of displaced peoples, the failure of solidarity, and the human cost of political betrayal.

Tewfik Saleh was born in 1926 in Alexandria. He graduated in English literature in 1949, then trained in film in Paris until 1951. Tawfik Saleh’s works are the only ones in Egyptian cinema that can be considered purely ‘Third World’. All his films deal with social injustice, underdevelopment, political abuse and class struggle. His first film, ‘ Darb al-mahabil’ / ‘Alley of Fools’ (1955), co-written by Naguib Mahfouz, was set in a working-class neighbourhood, but represented a kind of allegory of greed and materialism. It took Saleh another seven years to direct his second film, Sira’al-Abtal (1962), set during the cholera epidemic of 1930. Sarhan Shukry plays a left-wing country doctor who fights not only against the disease, but also against the ignorance of the peasants. His Yaumiyat Na’ib fi-l-aryaf (1968), based on the novel by Taufiq al-Hakim, is one of the best adaptations. However, he was often thwarted by censorship and bureaucracy. Al-moutamarridoune (1968) and Al-Sayyid Bulti (1967) both had to wait two years before being released. Finally, in the 1970s, Saleh left the country. His Al-makhdu’un (1973), adapted from Ghassan Kanafani’s novel Les hommes sous le soleil, was one of the first Arab films to move away from a melodramatic approach to the Palestinian question and to express scepticism about pan-Arab solidarity. Saleh’s last work, Al-Ayyam al-Tawila (1980) was produced by the Iraqi Theatre and the Film Organisation. Saleh, who had moved to Iraq in 1973 to teach film, returned to Egypt in the 1980s to teach at the Higher Film Institute.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with artist Reem Shilleh and researcher Brigitte Herremans (Ghent University), moderated by Wouter Hessels (Film historian RITCS).

The film is part of Frames of Resistance

More infos: https://crosstalks.net/event/frames-of-resistance-the-dupes