An Egyptian Story 1982
Directed by
Yousry Nasrallah
An Egyptian Story Plot Summary
Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for An Egyptian Story (1982). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.
Nour El-Sherif stars as Yehia Shukri Murad, a self-centered, chain-smoking, highly-strung radical realist filmmaker whose life careens toward a crisis when a heart attack interrupts a shoot. He travels to London for diagnosis and, ultimately, a bypass operation. The day before the operation, he spends time with his chauffeur, and the film shocks with a bold suggestion of a homosexual tangle between Yehia and the driver, conveyed through charged glances and unspoken tension.
As Yehia slips under anesthesia, the narrative shifts into a surreal, dreamlike courtroom housed inside his own chest. The courtroom’s roof beams are his ribs, and his inner child sits on trial, feeling abandoned by the adult Yehia and determined to strike him down. The child’s witness stand is built from clear plastic tubes, into which he drops white crystals that symbolize Yehia’s arteries and the cholesterol clogging them. Throughout the chaotic testimonies, a series of flashbacks illuminate Yehia’s life, beginning with harsh treatment by a bitter Catholic primary-school teacher.
The memories carry Yehia through pivotal moments in Egyptian history: his youth amid riots against British forces, his role in and direction of a film that alludes to Cairo Station, his relentless pursuit of Euro-American recognition at Cannes and in New York, the prize he nevertheless wins at the Moscow International Film Festival, and his work about the Battle of Algiers (1956–57), alluding to the era’s cinema. As Yehia ages, he encounters friction with censors yet stubbornly continues to shoot his banned film, a defiant arc that ends with the heart attack that frames the story.
The drama of Yehia’s life is inseparable from his family ties—his mother, his sister, and his wife Amal—each thread echoing within both the flashbacks and the courtroom sequences. The film suggests that the women’s behavior reflects their own experiences under patriarchal oppression: Yehia’s mother is compelled into marriage and motherhood at a young age and, in turn, imposes the same strictures on her daughter; Yehia himself resists letting his daughter pursue a love marriage just before his collapse. Amal, portrayed by Yousra, is likewise caught in the pressures of motherhood and Yehia’s infantile traits, a dynamic the film uses to explore power, vulnerability, and longing. The story traces how these relationships shape Yehia’s choices and his creative vision.
The finale intensifies as Yehia’s inner child faces a death sentence and dives into an artery with a knife in a bid to kill the adult Yehia. A surgeon then extracts this inner presence, and, waking from anesthesia, Yehia encounters the reclaimed child and the two merge back into one. In its closing beat, the film offers a moment of unresolved peace, a renewed self-awareness that embraces both Yehia’s complexities and his humanity.
Yehia Shukri Murad and Amal are central to this intricate tapestry, with key appearances by the performers guiding the intimate, symbolic layers of the story: Laila Hamada as Yehia’s Sister, Soheir El-Bably as The Mother, Magda El Khatib as The Sister, and Magda Al Sabahi as Magda, whose presence deepens the film’s examination of family dynamics and reputation in a culturally charged society. The film’s dreamlike structure and unflinching scrutiny of personal and political history invite viewers to consider how art, memory, and family impulses intersect in a life lived under public gaze.
An Egyptian Story Timeline
Follow the complete movie timeline of An Egyptian Story (1982) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.
Heart attack on the film set
Yehia Mourad collapses from a heart attack while directing a film, an opening moment that underlines his volatile temperament and obsession with control. The event shocks the crew and signals a life lived under intense creative pressure. It sets up the film’s meditation on fragility and self-importance.
Journey to London for diagnosis and bypass
Following the heart attack, Yehia travels to London for medical evaluation. He is eventually advised to undergo a heart bypass, a procedure that becomes a pivot in his life. The trip pits his ego against medicine and fate.
Day before surgery with his chauffeur
The day before the operation, Yehia spends time with his chauffeur, a moment that hints at intimate tensions between them. Their exchanges are charged with glances that readers interpret as homoerotic undercurrents. The scene adds a personal, private layer to his public image as a filmmaker.
Anaesthetic plunge into a surreal chest-court
As Yehia is put under, the action shifts to a surreal court trial inside his chest cavity, with the ribs forming roof beams. The proceedings become a psychedelic arena where his inner self is judged. The setting blends anatomy with allegory to explore his vulnerabilities.
Inner child on trial and arterial witnesses
Yehia's inner child takes the stand, while plastic tubes serve as witness conduits and white crystals symbolize the arteries and cholesterol choking them. The courtroom chaos intercuts with flashbacks, blurring fantasy and memory. The scene probes abandonment and self-loathing from Yehia's past.
Youthful riots in Egypt
Flashbacks show Yehia as a youth taking part in riots against British forces in Egypt. The sequence links his early political engagement to his later insistence on personal artistic vision. These memories frame the film's political and creative context.
Cairo Station allusion film
He stars in and directs a film that alludes to the classic Cairo Station, signaling his early ambitions and provocative style. The episode marks a key moment in his struggle for cinematic recognition. It emphasizes how his work mingles art with controversy.
Seeking Euro-American validation; Moscow prize
Yehia travels to Cannes and New York seeking European and American validation, but faces rejection from those markets. Undeterred, he wins a prize at the inaugural Moscow International Film Festival, signaling official recognition from the Eastern bloc. The contrasts illustrate the geopolitical tension in his career.
Film about the Battle of Algiers
In the flashbacks, Yehia makes a film about the Battle of Algiers (1956–57), possibly alluding to the later 1966 movie, The Battle of Algiers. The project underscores his artistic ambition to engage with political history. It also foreshadows clashes with censorship and the limits placed on his vision.
Ageing Yehia clashes with censors but continues
As censors tighten their grip, Yehia refuses to shelve his controversial project and presses on with filming. The resistance heightens the political tension surrounding his work. His stubbornness becomes a defining trait of his late career.
Second heart attack during censorship clash
In the midst of this censorship battle, Yehia suffers another heart attack, underscoring the perilous cost of artistic defiance. The medical crisis intensifies the surreal balance between body and cinema that the film dramatizes. This failure forces a pause that shifts the narrative toward recovery.
Family: mother, sister, Amal and patriarchal oppression
Interwoven flashbacks reveal Yehia's fraught relationships with his mother, sister, and wife Amal, each constrained by patriarchal norms. Their behavior is shown as both a consequence and reinforcement of oppression he experienced. The trio's dynamics illuminate the social context shaping his art and life.
Inner child condemned to death
Within the chest-court, the inner child is condemned to death and plunges into an artery with a knife in an attempt to kill Yehia. The moment crystallizes Yehia's self-destructive impulses and the urge to deny his own humanity. The dramatic image intensifies the surreal court's indictment of his life choices.
Surgical extraction and bodily reconciliation
The surgeon operates and extracts the inner child, saving Yehia from death. As he regains consciousness, Yehia confronts the fragment of himself he just expelled. The healing process begins with this symbolic separation and reunion.
Inner child merges back and ending
In a final, intimate exchange, Yehia meets his inner child, makes peace with him, and watches the two merge back into one. The merge signals a reconciliation between self-destructive impulses and creative ambition. The film ends on a note of fragile, hopeful harmony.
An Egyptian Story Characters
Explore all characters from An Egyptian Story (1982). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.
Yehia Shukri Murad (main character) – portrayed by Nour El-Sherif
A self-centered, chain-smoking, radical realist filmmaker who drives his projects with fierce ambition. He collapses in the midst of directing a film and faces a surreal trial inside his chest that tests his vitality, ego, and capacity for self-reconciliation. The narrative tracks his struggles with love, fame, and the pressures of censorship, revealing a complex blend of genius and fragility.
Amal (wife) – played by Yousra
Yehia’s wife, a central figure in his personal life who embodies the constraints of motherhood and traditional gender roles. Their relationship reflects how intimate bonds are shaped by patriarchal expectations, balancing affection with barriers to freedom. Her presence marks the emotional stakes of Yehia’s ambitions.
The Mother – Soheir El-Bably
A matriarch who imposes social duties and constraints on her children, representing the entrenched patriarchy in Yehia’s world. Her actions help shape Yehia’s early experiences and attitudes toward authority and family, contributing to his complex relationship with women.
The Sister – Yehia’s sister
A figure within the family dynamic who experiences and reflects the impact of patriarchal norms. Her interactions with Yehia illustrate the surrounding social pressures and the tension between duty and personal longing.
Old Yehia
An elder version of Yehia appearing in the surreal sequences, symbolizing the artist’s legacy and the passage of time. His presence adds a reflective layer to Yehia’s identity and career, offering a counterpoint to the younger version’s drive.
Inner Child
The inner child is on trial in a symbolic courtroom within Yehia’s chest, representing unresolved needs for love and belonging. The child's perspective exposes Yehia’s infantilities and fears, ultimately guiding a path toward healing.
An Egyptian Story Settings
Learn where and when An Egyptian Story (1982) takes place. Explore the film’s settings, era, and how they shape the narrative.
Time period
Mid-20th century (1950s–1960s)
The narrative moves through the 1950s and 1960s, a period of postcolonial change and cinematic experimentation. It references British colonial clashes in Egypt, the Cannes and Moscow film scenes, and the early years of the Moscow International Film Festival. These historical touchpoints ground Yehia’s personal journey in a larger cultural moment, while surreal sequences reinterpret memory and ambition.
Location
Egypt, London, Cannes, New York, Moscow
The film primarily unfolds within Egypt's vibrant film culture, while weaving in scenes set in major international film hubs. Cairo anchors the personal drama, but Yehia’s career carries him to London, Cannes, New York and Moscow, reflecting mid-20th-century global cinema networks. The settings frame a story about artistic ambition, family dynamics, and political upheaval during a transformative era in Egypt and cinema.
An Egyptian Story Themes
Discover the main themes in An Egyptian Story (1982). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.
🎭
Identity
The film probes Yehia’s self-image as a radical realist filmmaker, while exposing his inner conflicts and vulnerabilities. It blurs lines between artist and ego, showing how personal history shapes creative choices. The inner court trial mirrors his struggle to reconcile fame, desire, and self-doubt.
🧠
Dream logic
A surreal, virtually courtroom-like sequence inside Yehia’s chest reframes his life as a dream-logic investigation. Witnesses, including Yehia’s inner child, reveal repressed memories and fears. The narrative uses dream imagery to critique censorship, memory, and the cost of creative risk.
👩
Patriarchy
The women in Yehia’s life—the mother, sister, and wife—embody the social constraints of patriarchal society. Their actions reflect the pressures of traditional roles and motherhood. The film uses these relationships to question power dynamics and how gender shapes desire and art.
🎬
Cinema as autobiography
The film frames Yehia’s biography as a cinematic experiment, blurring documentary with fiction. It references real-world events and film histories to critique how cinema polices truth and art. By staging the narrative as both production and reflection, it turns personal history into a public meditation on art.
An Egyptian Story Spoiler-Free Summary
Discover the spoiler-free summary of An Egyptian Story (1982). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.
In contemporary Egypt, celebrated director Yehia Shukri Murad has built a reputation for daring realism, his latest film poised to become a milestone. Yet beneath the applause, his personal life frays—married to the patient Amal and father to two young children, he finds himself increasingly remote from the people who matter most. A sudden, symbolic blockage of his heart during a crucial shoot forces Yehia to travel abroad for emergency treatment, setting the stage for a contemplation of art, mortality, and identity that reaches far beyond the hospital corridor.
The film’s tone hovers between stark observation and absurdist fantasy, allowing everyday moments to melt into dream‑like tableaux. As Yehia’s condition worsens, his inner world erupts into a surreal courtroom that seems to be built inside his own chest, its architecture echoing ribs and arteries. This metaphor‑rich space becomes a visual playground where memory, desire, and guilt collide, offering viewers a glimpse of a psyche that is both fiercely independent and painfully vulnerable.
Family dynamics pulse at the story’s core. Amal endures the strain of motherhood while navigating her husband’s childlike temperament, and the shadows of Yehia’s own upbringing loom large—his mother’s early marriage and the expectations she passes to her daughter, and the bond with his sister that hints at both support and rivalry. Even the quiet presence of his chauffeur introduces an undercurrent of unspoken tension, suggesting that personal connections can be as complex and layered as any cinematic plot.
Through its striking blend of historical backdrop, autobiographical resonance, and visually poetic imagination, the film invites the audience to linger in the spaces where public acclaim meets private doubt. It crafts a mood that is simultaneously introspective and expansive, urging viewers to consider how the stories we tell are shaped by the fragmented, often contradictory pieces of ourselves that we carry inside.
Movies with Similar Twists and Themes
Uncover films that echo the narrative beats, emotional arcs, or dramatic twists of the one you're exploring. These recommendations are handpicked based on story depth, thematic resonance, and spoiler-worthy moments — perfect for fans who crave more of the same intrigue.
Featured on this page
What's After the Movie?
Not sure whether to stay after the credits? Find out!
Explore Our Movie Platform
New Movie Releases (2026)
Famous Movie Actors
Top Film Production Studios
Movie Plot Summaries & Endings
Major Movie Awards & Winners
Best Concert Films & Music Documentaries
Movie Collections and Curated Lists
© 2026 What's After the Movie. All rights reserved.