Film: The Dupes (Al-Makhdu'um)

Set in 1950s Iraq, The Dupes is a stark, beautifully photographed black and white film tracing the destinies of three Palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession, despair and hope for a better future. The protagonists are Palestinian refugees who are trying to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the "Promised Land," concealed in the steel tank of a truck. Each one believes he can make a new life for himself, but as the film title suggests, their flight is no solution. One of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian question, the story is based on the 1962 novella "men in the Sun" by assassinated Palestinian writer, artist and resistance leader, Ghassan Kanafani. Starring: Mohamed Kheir Helwani, Bassam Loutfi, Saleh Kholoki, Abdel Rahman Al Rachi. Written and Directed by Tawfiq Saleh Based on the 1962 "Novella Men in the Sun" (Rijal Taht Al-Shams) by Ghassan Kanafani. Black and White | Syria | 1972 | 107 minutes | In Arabic with English subtitles. Winner: Carthage Film Festival, Tanit d'Or (1972) Nominated: Moscow International Film Festival, Golden Prize (1973) "A classic masterpiece of Arab cinema." - The North African and Middle East Festival "Skillfully directed and crisply photographed in black and white." - The Seattle Times Tawfiq Saleh Was born in Egypt and rose to fame in the 1950s as a pioneer of the realism school in Egyptian and Arab cinema. His early works, Fools' Alley (Darb al-Mahabeel, 1955), The Struggle of the Heroes (Sira‘a al-Abtal, 1962), and The Rebels (al-Mutamarridun, 1968), were produced after the July 1952 revolution, a period of great political transformation in Egypt. Saleh's most famous film, Everyday Life of a Deputy from the Rural Areas (Yawmiyyat Na'eb Min al-Aryaf, 1968), is considered a watershed in the history of Egyptian cinema, and the definitive work of realism in Arab cinema. Tawfiq Saleh joined the National Organization for Cinema in Syria in 1970, and produced The Dupes (al-Makhdu‘un, 1972), which had a lasting influence on Syrian cinema during the seventies and eighties. Ghassan Kanafani Born in Acre (northern Palestine) in 1936. Ghassan Kanafani was a major spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and founding editor of its weekly magazine Al-Hadaf. His novels, short stories and plays have been published in sixteen languages. He as murdered in a car-bomb explosion in Beirut in 1972.

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