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River of Fear 1988 (نهر الخوف)

River of Fear (نهر الخوف) is a dramatic and suspense Arabic-Egyption movie directed by Muhammad Abu Seif, son of legendary director, Salah Abu Seif, and was released on the 18th of July, 1988. It is co-directed by Nader Sharif, produced by Takfour Antonian, and written by Hussam Al Hajrasa and Muhammad Abu Seif himself. The movie stars Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Ahmad Rateb, Noora, Abla Kamel, and Salah Qabeel. The movie’s idea of isolation has been introduced to the public many times before by the director himself and in Egyption movies and theater works. The plot revolves around three young men: Abdelrahman, Adel, and Kamal. Two of these young men run away because they are falsely accused of raping and kidnapping a girl. As they find their way out for the scene, they spot a police officer walking across a river and assume that he is there to arrest them. They then steal an autobus in that river with passengers. As a result, they get chased which imposes no other option to them but to completely take over the autobus, force the autobus driver to continue driving away from the police, and hold in the passengers as hostages until they were set free from any allegations pointed at them. The film presents a variety of social figures and demonstrates their feelings towards fear and apprehension. It studies how it controls them, how they act when they are exposed to this emotion, and how they eventually handle it. For example, the mother (Abla Kamel) was very overprotective of her kids and is always anxious and is extremely controlled by fear that something will happen to her children. Another example is the lawyer (Osman AbdelMoneim) who disregards his fear and implants fear concerning the law and the consequences of what the young men are doing. The audience is well aware of the young men’s innocence since the beginning of the movie, so they watch them develop from being just ordinary and peaceful people to perverts because they were falsely accused with something they did not do and just want to find a way out. Throughout the movie, Abdelrahman, the main character, gradually transforms from being a peaceful citizen, to criminal, to a terrorist. The movie is a combination of comedy and drama: when the environment becomes tense, a joke pops in from here and there to decrease the intensity of the drama and anxiousness. The ending is happy, not tragic, as Abdelrahman, his colleague, and the passengers on the autobus are shown to be laughing together. This implies that a friendly atmosphere has been developed between (them aside from their horrifying experience on the autobus). The movie River of Fear is considered a huge transition for the young director Muhammad Abu Seif. However, movie critics do believe that there were some factors that should be considered like portraying characters in a certain manner, and narrating some events in the story. In addition to, the movie uses very direct terms about fear, violence, rape, sickness, and dehydration. The movie was too detailed that it even discussed global warming which is irrelevant to its plot.

References


 * CinematechHaddad www.cinematechhaddad.com. 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2013.


 * AbuSeif, Mohamed. "River of Fear" Tango Aflam. Aflams. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. .


 * "River of Fear" Elcinema. Damlag, 2013. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. .


 * Haddad, Hussein. "River of Fear" Cinematechhaddad. CinemaTech, 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2013.   .