Cairo Station is a 1958 film from Egypt directed by Youssef Chahine.
It is about the people who work in and around Cairo's central rail station. Qinawi is a lame young man who is offered a job as a newspaper vendor by Madbouli, who owns a newsstand. Qinawi becomes infatuated with Hannuma, a lovely young woman who sells cold drinks. However, Hannuma is engaged to Abu Siri, a luggage porter at the station, and she is not interested in Qinawi's attentions. Driven mad by jealousy, Qinawi's thoughts turn to murder.
In a secondary plotline, Abu Siri, who is fed up with how the porters are ruthlessly exploited by their bosses at the train station, is agitating to start a union.
Tropes:
- As You Know: A lot of this with Hannuma and the other cold drink vendors in this first scene, when they say "The only one who will profit is the buffet owner, Mansour." Further As You Know dialogue establishes that they are selling their own drinks on the sly and keeping the profits.
- Evil Cripple: Qinawi, the guy with a limp who is frequently mocked by the others at the train station. When he realizes he can't have Hannuma he decides to kill her.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: "Read all about it! Read all about it! Mutilated body in a trunk!" This, from a different newspaper vendor about the previously mentioned murder case, is what makes Qinawi decide to kill Hannuma.
- Extreme Close-Up:
- An extreme close-up on Qinawi's eyes as he stares at the bare ankles of a teenaged girl, emphasizing his creepiness.
- A similar shot is used later when Qinawi is staring at another woman's breasts. Several other times such a close-up is used to show his creepy stare.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Qinawi near then end, when it's well after dark and he's trying to hide inside an empty rail car.
- Kitchen Sink Drama: A story focusing on the mostly poor, struggling workers who staff Cairo Station.
- Kubrick Stare: Qinawi gives an unsettling one to Hannuma when he, standing on the platform, sees her dancing at a party in a train car.
- If I Can't Have You…: Qinawi decides to kill Hannuma when he realizes he will never have her.
- Narrator: Madbouli the news agent narrates the opening scene, explaining that the story is set at Cairo Station and that he gave homeless Qinawi a job.
- Oh, Crap!: Qinawi's obvious shock when he sees Hannuma and realizes he stabbed the wrong person.
- The Place: Cairo Station, a busy rail terminal where the lives of many people intersect.
- Poor Man's Porn: The penniless Qinawi is living in a shed by the station. He has festooned the shed with pictures of girls in bikinis.
- Sanity Slippage: Qinawi starts to lose it towards the end, after he attacks the woman he thinks is Hannuma. He starts hallucinating odd lights in the station, he imagines that he and Hannuma are getting married, and he addresses a cat as Hannuma.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: The other girls play a trick on Hannuma and douse her with a water crane. This results in creepy Qinawi getting to gawk at her when Hannuma shuffles out of her dress and is wearing only a slip soaked to her body.
- Stuffed into the Fridge: Qinawi tries to invoke this by murdering Hannuma, stuffing her into her own trunk that is supposed to be carrying her trousseau, and telling her fiancé Abu Siri to load it onto the train. Subverted, because 1) he stabbed the wrong woman by mistake, and 2) she isn't dead.
- Would Hit a Girl: Abu Siri smacks Hannuma around after catching her in a train car, partying. Disturbingly, she doesn't mind very much, flashing her legs at him in an obvious invitation for sex just moments later.
