Film of the Week #50

March 30th - April 6th 2022

The Dupes (1972)

Drama, 1h 46m

Set in the 1950s, The Dupes traces the destinies of three different men brought together by their dispossession, their despair and their hope for a better future. The protagonists are Palestinian refugees who are trying to make their way across the border from Iraq into Kuwait, the 'Promised Land,' concealed in the steel tank of a truck. Representing different dimensions of the Palestinian experience, each one believes he can make a new life for himself, but as the film’s title suggests, their flight is no solution. One of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian question, 'The Dupes' is based on the 1962 novella 'Men in the Sun' by assassinated Palestinian writer, artist and resistance leader, Ghassan Kanafani. Set in Palestine and Iraq, and filmed in Syria by Tewfik Saleh, an Egyptian director, the film was banned in several Arab countries due to its implied criticisms of Arab governments.

Director: Tewfik Saleh

Writers: Ghassan Kanafani (novel “Men in the Sun), Tewfik Saleh

Cinematographer: Bahgat Heidar

Editors: Farin Dib, Saheb Haddad

Music: Solhi El-Wadi

Sound Department: Zoheir Fahmy

Starring: Mohamed Kheir-Halouani, Abdul Rahman Al Rashi, Bassam Lofti Abou-Ghazala, Thanaa Debsi

In this, one of Arab cinema’s best dramas of real suspense, individuals and people, the world and time, desire and the law all flicker off and on and finally consume eachother.
— Lizbeth Malkmus/Roy Armes, 'Arab and African Filmmaking'