Adrift on the Nile

Based on the novel by Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Adrift on the Nile (1971) at first seems like an Egyptian spin on La Dolce Vita, but by its conclusion emerges as an original and powerful drama. Set primarily on a Cairo houseboat, where a group of wealthy hedonists, most of whom work in the arts, gather to indulge in casual drug use, the characters range from the houseboat owner who overindulges in his hemp-smoking and hallucinates about Egypt's long-dead pharaonic grandeur, to a female reporter who joins the party and gets swept into the decadence (which, by Western standards, is clearly on the tame side). Things get out-of-hand when the revelers indulge in a midnight automobile ride that results in a fatal hit-and-run accident, and the group's silence on the affair brings about a sudden cold wave of reality. Clearly an indictment of the excesses allowed in a secular Egypt, Adrift on the Nile can also be seen as a condemnation of the failed empire-building grandiosity of the Nasser era (the film takes places in 1966, a year before Egypt's disastrous defeat in the Six-Day War). Although the insertion of a color musical number in the midst of this black-and-white film seems a little out of place, on the whole this is an intelligent and challenging production that dares to dissect the soul and mind of a battered nation. DVD extras on this digitally remastered disc are limited to the rare original trailer. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)