A melodrama about a young agricultural engineer who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Chahine’s sixth film in four years would become his second film to be selected for the Cannes competition. Released two years after the Egyptian revolution, traces of neo-realism are detected in Chahine’s first socially-conscious work, one that openly discussed the growing rift between the decaying aristocracy and the rising working class. It also features the screen debut of Egyptian film icon Omar Sharif.