--- title: "Cairo Station" year: 1958 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cairo-station" fi1m_id: "cairo-station" imdb_id: "tt0051390" tmdb_id: 47324 wikidata_id: "Q765535" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-25T08:27:39.675591+00:00" updated: "2026-09-25T08:27:58.587706+00:00" region: "LT" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cairo Station (1958) Directed by Youssef Chahine · 1h 17m · Crime, Drama, Thriller ## Identity Cairo Station - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/cairo-station - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** cairo-station - **IMDb ID:** tt0051390 - **TMDB ID:** 47324 - **Wikidata ID:** Q765535 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051390/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/47324, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q765535 **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 79 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* No amount of company makes this railway station feel less lonely > Youssef Chahine makes a railway station an unsettling place to spend 77 minutes. We recommend this humane crime drama for its performances and shadowed images, with a caveat about its occasionally heavy-handed sadness. ## Synopsis Qinawi (Youssef Chahine), Hanuma (Hend Rostom), Abu Siri (Farid Shawqy) and Madbouli (Hassan El Baroudy) are among the people whose lives intersect at a railway station. Around them, the station forms a community divided by social and cultural differences. Emotional deprivation and exploitation shape relationships within this shared public space, where being surrounded by people offers no guarantee of companionship. The drama follows these overlapping lives through a setting that accommodates everyday encounters, private unhappiness and crime, with humour alongside its darker concerns. ## Review *Cairo Station* is a good, disquieting crime drama whose interest in people extends beyond what they contribute to the plot. Youssef Chahine directs and plays Qinawi, placing himself within a railway-station community marked by emotional deprivation and exploitation. We recommend it, with a reservation about how heavily it sometimes presses its sadness. Its strongest quality is the attention it pays to people who could easily have been treated as background. A railway station gives a film something useful before anyone speaks: people must share a place without sharing much else. Here, that proximity exposes social and cultural divisions without suggesting that simply meeting one another will resolve them. There is humour here, too, and it keeps the people from becoming a procession of grievances. The film allows human absurdity into a setting where there is plenty to be unhappy about. Alevise Orfanelli’s cinematography provides the clearest reason to seek it out. The noir-like shadows and sharp divisions between light and darkness make the station feel less open than a public building ought to feel. We were unsettled by those shadows: people occupy a shared space, yet the lighting makes their isolation palpable. The photography gives emotional deprivation a visible shape without requiring another explanation of what is wrong with these lives. Alongside the director are Hend Rostom as Hanuma, Farid Shawqy as Abu Siri and Hassan El Baroudy as Madbouli. The naturalistic performances make the emotional need credible before the film asks us to judge it. We believe in the people sufficiently to resist having them reduced to examples of a social problem. That matters to the crime story, because our interest in what might happen depends on taking those involved seriously. The tragic emphasis sometimes presses too hard in Abdel Hai Adib’s screenplay. We are already aware that these people live with deprivation; the film can seem reluctant to let us reach our own response to it. The danger is that a person becomes a case to be pitied, and we occasionally feel the writing pushing in that direction. The comedy helps because it gives the characters something to do besides suffer, and we would have welcomed more of that freedom. Kamal Abul Ela’s editing keeps the material concentrated within 77 minutes. That compactness suits a setting where several lives compete for attention, though it also gives the sadness little room to ease. Fouad El-Zahry’s music registers less strongly with us than the photography, which carries much of the unease. The short running time is welcome for material this insistent, and there is little opportunity to grow comfortable with what we are seeing. As a thriller, the film benefits from its attention to ordinary life: the social divisions make the unease recognisable. The station remains interesting as a place people inhabit, even when we are conscious of the pressure the story puts on them. We would recommend it to those who usually avoid thrillers, provided they can tolerate a little insistence about where their sympathies should lie. Save it for an evening when sympathetic company need not mean a cheerful film. *Fi1m score 80, published 25 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Cairo Station worth watching?** *Cairo Station* is worth watching for its humane performances and unsettling photography, and we score it 80 out of 100. We recommend it even to those who usually avoid thrillers: its railway-station community matters as much as its crime story, though the writing sometimes pushes too hard for sympathy. **How long is Cairo Station, and what is it rated?** *Cairo Station* runs 1h 17m. It is a crime and drama film. **Where can I watch Cairo Station in Lithuania?** *Cairo Station* is not on any streaming or rental service in Lithuania at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Cairo Station, and is it suitable for children?** *Cairo Station* has a UK 12 certificate, making it a choice for teenagers and adults rather than younger children. We find its shadowed station and insistent sadness unsettling; the unease comes from isolation, exploitation and emotional deprivation. The certificate warrants caution, but we cannot give a specific warning about violence or gore. **How does Cairo Station compare to Daybreak?** *Cairo Station* and [*Daybreak*](https://film.one/film/daybreak) both bring frustrated desire into shadowed working-class crime dramas, but we find *Daybreak* more persuasive in earning its bleakness. *Cairo Station* offers a broader community, naturalistic performances and some welcome humour, although its sadness can feel forced. Choose *Daybreak* for claustrophobic intensity, or *Cairo Station* for its attention to overlapping ordinary lives. ### Reviews we read (5) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): Bradshaw presents the film as a tragicomic masterpiece. He praises its encompassing portrait of human life. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/87894/cairo.station) - **Time Out**, TJ (90/100, inferred): The review presents the film as an overlooked masterpiece. It praises its blend of Egyptian storytelling and Italian neorealism. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/cairo-station) - **Slant Magazine**, Derek Smith (4/5): The review praises the film’s unsettling, socially grounded portrait of emotional deprivation and exploitation. It especially singles out the noir-like shadows and chiaroscuro lighting for reflecting the characters’ inner turmoil. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/cairo-station-blu-ray-review-youssef-chahine/) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (70/100, inferred): Parkinson finds the film engaging and less depressing than its tragic subject matter suggests. He praises its naturalistic performance and its use of the railway station to examine social and cultural divisions. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cairo-station-review/) - **Film Comment**, Max Nelson (64/100, inferred): The accessible page identifies a restoration-focused article about Cairo Station and The Land, but provides no review text. Its verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be determined from the available text. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/restoration-row-cairo-station-and-the-land/) ## Details - **Director:** Youssef Chahine - **Director:** Youssef Chahine - **Screenplay:** Abdel Hai Adib - **Cinematography:** Alevise Orfanelli - **Editor:** Kamal Abul Ela - **Music:** Fouad El-Zahry - **Producer:** Gabriel Talhami - **Cast:** Farid Shawqy as Abu Siri; Hend Rostom as Hanuma; Youssef Chahine as Qinawi; Hassan El Baroudy as Madbouli; Abdel Aziz Khalil as Abo Gaber; Ahmed Abaza as Mansour; Essmat Mahmoud; Hussain Ismael as راكب بالقطار - **Runtime:** 1h 17m - **First release (EG):** 20 January 1958 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Thriller ## Where to watch in Lithuania Not streaming, renting or buying in Lithuania at the last check. ## Awards - International Submission to the Academy Awards 1959: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Le Jour se lève* (1939), Fi1m 82: Another working-class drama where frustrated desire makes the shadows feel dangerous. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/daybreak.md) - *The Naked City* (1948): A crime story attentive to the ordinary lives surrounding its central investigation. - *The Cloud-Capped Star* (1960): Family obligations and exploitation turn everyday endurance into something painful to witness. - *The Headless Woman* (2008): An unsettling look at the protection afforded by an unequal society. - *The Lunchbox* (2013): A gentler account of loneliness amid the daily business of a city. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/cairo-station