His colleagues gather to squabble over shares between themselves and with the owner of the charter boats, Moallem Abdel-Mawgoud (Tawfiq al-Daqan), who the small-time fishermen accuse of destroying their livelihoods by accepting an offer to join a large foreign fishing trawler’s crew.
Meanwhile, the elderly Hamouda al-Bolti (Shafik Nour El Din) is treating his asthma with a doctor named Sayed Effendi (Abdel Rahman Abou Zahra), who is in love with Hanafi’s beautiful sister Aisha (Madiha Hamdi) and is only stopped from marrying her by her family’s hostility.
The conflict between the old and new ways simmers as the fishermen are torn between the hope of Sayed al-Bolti’s return on his dhow and Mahmoud’s invitation to join Abdel-Mawgoud on the trawler.
Every social nuance of the interactions, small and large, is captured by cinematographer Wadid Sirry’s use of natural lighting [as opposed to the spotlights and Hollywood techniques used in mainstream Egyptian cinema of the time].
I almost cried in anger, and the end result was something Saleh himself would find incomprehensible.Saleh reported later that he withdrew it from some early showings when censors called it “degenerate” for actress Soheir El-Morshidy to shave up to the knee.