Although he is not as frequently discussed as Youssef Chahine, Salah Abou-Seif, or even contemporary directors like Yousy Nasrallah, Henry Barakat was one of the most successful and popular studio directors in the classic era of Egyptian cinema, of which few films are currently available to Western audiences on home video, one of them being the recent DVD release of this classic, massively acclaimed masterwork. Henry Barakat cared little about careful compositions and stylization, focusing heavily on fast and economical storytelling with fleeting moments of poetic imagery in most of his dramatic films, while his comic efforts showed an immense talent for staging sight gags and getting good comic performances out of classically trained dramatic actors.There is little comedy in "Doa al karawan", also known as "The Nightingale's Prayer", and it comes almost solely in the first half hour or so of the film, along with the film's only moments of comfort and joy. This is among the most depressing films ever made, a classical tragic melodrama, certainly, but one far more poetic, intelligent, and understanding of human emotions and relationships than most. That is not all that surprising either, as the film is closely based on the prose masterpiece by famed literary master Taha Hussein. The film touches on all the bases when it comes to tragedy: lust, revenge, murder, repression, love, betrayal, and death, but does so through a story that rarely feels contrived and which is always effective and intelligent, never dumbed down for the masses in spite of this being a popular and relatively mainstream film, albeit one that was heavily censored at the time (an attempted rape scene was cut, I believe, but is restored on home video). Starring Egyptian superstar and terrific actress Faten Hamama (Omar Sharif's wife for many years), the film follows the story of Hamama's character Amna as she, her mother, and her sister are forced to leave their village to preserve the family's honor by Amna's viciously patriarchal and hypocritical uncle following the murder of her father after he was caught committing adultery. Amna and her sister move to the city, naive village girls as they are, shocked and appalled at the simple sight of a train and awed by things like pianos and gramophones, and doubtlessly scandalized by the heavy drinking and fornication that was fairly common in Egyptian city life at the time, and find jobs working as maids. Soon Amna's sister is seduced by her employer, which leads to her uncle finding out and killing her, leading Amna to plot revenge against her sister's previous employer, an alcoholic businessman who soon falls in love with Amna. The film twists and turns, but never feels contrived, and is always literate and well-written, although the English subtitles unfortunately cannot translate certain poetic passages well, which come off as decidedly corny or lose their power once translated. The film is very much in the spirit of Taha Hussein's writings, and is probably among my favorite literary adaptations overall in terms of how good the film is and also how well it brings the novel to the screen. The ending is devastating, the characters are well-developed, the tragedy feels real, the melodramatic air of the film fits well, the story is immensely well-told on a visual level, the orchestral score is excellent (but, unfortunately, very poorly-recorded), and every performance is excellent. In addition there is some excellent cinematography, although the transfer on the DVD is unfortunately not very good.Audiences which strongly dislike classic American or British melodramas may not take to Henry Barakat's "The Nightingale's Prayer", but I think it is one of the very best of its sort (possibly the best, period) and is stylistically in tune with the nature of the tale as an adaptation of something akin to an Arabic prose version of a Shakespearian tragedy. With the film now available on DVD in North America, I sincerely hope it will be seen by more people outside Egypt, where it is widely considered a classic. Regardless of the criticism it may face from some, "The Nightingale's Prayer" is a film I have seen many times since my childhood, and one which has never lessened in power or resonance, and is still very much relevant to the world today.10/10

Amna, Hanadi, and their mother are village women who are forced into city life when their cruel Uncle Gaber casts them out of the village. The characters they encounter in the city are a revealing mix of urban professionals and seedier individuals. The professionals (the chief of police, the engineer) represent the new technocratic upper class of Egypt, responsible for modernization, urban planning, and bureaucratization. In the chief of police's home, Amna transforms from an illiterate village girl in hijab to a literate young woman in Western dress. In the end, the oppressive, misogynistic Uncle Gaber is arrested in the city, proof that his village code of honour does not apply in the modern urban context.

This is a wonderful Egyptian film that the average Western audience never gets an opportunity to see. It's really a shame as the movie gives so much insight into the culture and the story, though very "foreign" features some characters you can easily relate to an care for.The film is a great film that shows the clash between very conservative Islamic values and traditions and those of a more modern Moslem world. This clash is extremely poignant and seems to illustrate that the spirit of the law and tradition is much more important that the traditions themselves.The film begins with a woman and her two adult daughters finding out that the father is murdered. It seems that this man was committing adultery and someone took it upon themselves to punish him. However, instead of just punishing him and being done with it, the family Patriarch (the uncle) tells the women they must leave the village and fend for themselves! It ISN'T because they did anything wrong, but that they would be a reminder of the man's infidelity. So, in his twisted thinking, he cast these women out with no regard to their future just so the family APPEARS good and just to outsiders!! The ladies appear fortunate when they arrive at a far-off town because the two youngest are able to get jobs as maids. However, the oldest daughter is eventually seduced (or possibly raped) by her employer and the family. The mother is extremely upset by this and contacts the patriarch to ask for his assistance. The "kindly" uncle agrees to take them back to the original village, but on the way, he murders the "fallen sister"! The inequity of her death and the employer never being punished is a major theme of the film. While some in the male-dominated society might approve of this, the unjustness of the murder is definitely called into question. And, since no one seems to care, the youngest daughter, Amna, decides to run from her Uncle's home and find the older sister's ex-employer and exact justice! All this occurs just in the first half of the movie! The rest is the slowly unfolding of Amna's revenge and the unexpected twists and turns the plot takes along the way. And, fortunately, this is NOT a by-the-numbers movie--it is definitely NOT predictable or written for a dumb audience! This is an exceptionally well written, acted and directed film. In addition, the cinematography is exquisite. The only down side, and this is a very minor quibble, is that the music is a bit "tinny".

For over an hour and half of enjoyment watching this magnificent story and special movie you will ask your self this question, which is more powerful?Amna (played by the Legendary Faten Hamama) is a young sister that watches the death of her older sister by her Uncle, the guy that abandoned her family and left them with no support. She hears from her mother that her sister was killed because she dishonors the family and based on their culture, she deserve to die. Amna doesn't think so; she believes that her uncle was the one to blame for what they are suffering from. She switches her focus and revenge to the engineer who fooled her sister and lied to her (role played by Ahmed Mazhar) and was a direct cause for her death. Amna moves to his house to work as maid and tried to poison him many times, but her plans always fails. She discovers after a while that she can't kill, she doesn't have the power to kill. This engineer keep playing with her try to have fun, but she kept resist him. The more she resisted, the more he was attracted to her and finally he loved her. The poor girl thought that by making him falling in love with her would destroy his life. What she didn't count for was her heart started to click signals for that guy. Her plan was to dig a hole for him and through him in it, but she fell in the hole with him.She faced him with the truth, and who she is. She decided to leave him and get away from him. She knows that her plan was failed and she needs to get away. It was about time for her uncle (the guy who killed her sister) to find where she is and was after her death to keep his family pride and honor shinning!!!!!!!!!!!In her way out of the house, she sees him and she knows that he has bad intention, but the engineer sees him too, and takes the bullet in his back to protect her and save her life. It's a sad ending that you will never forget. There are no enough words to describe how this picture is great. A story by Taha Hussein (the Dean of the Arabic Literature), Faten Hamama (The lady of the Arabic Screen), Ahmed Mazhar, Amina Rizk, Zahrat El-Olla and running this show by someone like Henry Barakat is something deserves great appreciation after watching it.