Adieu Bonaparte / Al Wedaa Ya Bonaparte
Director: Youssef Chahine
Release Date: 1984
Running Time: 114 minutes
Language: Arabic
Subtitles: English, French

Screening Schedule: 8 December 2022, 8pm |14 December, 8pm |18 December, 8pm | 29 December, 8pm

Chahine’s first dive into the historical genre was through Jamila The Algerian / Jamila Abou Hereed (1958). Adieu Bonaparte is one of his other feats of strength in the historical genre.

In 1798, Napoleon lands his army in Egypt, defeats the Mameluke warlords (the remnants of Ottoman rule), and reaches Cairo. Three brothers, Egyptian patriots, chafe under Mameluke rule and reject the prospect of French domination. Bakr, the eldest, is a hothead, quick to advocate armed rebellion; Ali is more philosophical and poetic while Yehia is young and impressionable. One of Napoleon’s generals, the one–legged intellectual Caffarelli, wants to make Frenchmen out of Ali, Yehia, and other Egyptians and decides to open a bakery where their father works; he becomes a tutor, declaring his love for them. Is tragedy the only resolution for these conflicting loyalties?