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United Arab Republic Promo Film Egypt & Syria Cairo, Giza, Damascus Xd4935 (1959)

1959 · Short film · 15 min

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Synopsis

This 1959 color documentary film with Arabic intertitles and hopeful English narration tours the then-recently established (and subsequently short-lived) United Arab Republic’s two joint regions: Egypt and Syria, with visits to Giza and Damascus showing architectural landmarks and local agricultural developments (TRT: 15:56).Opening titles: “Developed and Printed in DEFA Studios Berlin, Written by Ramadan Khalifa, Photographed by Dia El Mahdy, Supervised by Hassan Helmy” (0:06). A trio of pyramids sit on a desert horizon under a clear blue sky. The Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt. Single pyramids in closeup: Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. The Great Sphinx of Giza at the Giza Pyramid Complex, also called the Giza Necropolis (0:25). Feluccas, traditional sailboats of Egypt’s Nile river (1:08). A large plantation mansion and fields. Farmers till the earth (1:23). A desert sunrise. Narration invokes the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and its result, the Agrarian Reform Law. Field workers meet with Egyptian locals and interview them, taking notes (2:14). Local representatives of a cooperative government meet, and farmers speak to a council. A sequence of spinning intertitles in Arabic (2:52). A grove of trees and crops along a rural road. Farmers cut down tall stalks, forming bundles. Cotton picking. Vast stretches of barren desert with irrigation pipes and canals (4:01). Water bursts forth and flows through a stream to a farm (4:50). A pipe feeds toward sprinklers watering…

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Details

Running time
15 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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