Nasser 56

Hey all,

Watched Nasser 56 last week for a film class. While I enjoyed the film for its insight into how the main character might have felt during that particular time in his presidency, I couldn't help but feel the movie was a little propaganda-y - The director must have really liked Nasser.

The film follows egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser in the year 1956 - hence the title. At this point, Nasser is trying to raise the money to build the Aswan High Dam, but no one will help him. The dam is supposed to help make life for the Egyptian people better as it would provide water and electricity to the poorer rural areas of Egypt.

America had originally offered her support, but withdrew soon after possibly because they didn't want to start a war against the British (who, until 1922 had colonial control over Egypt). The British, though they have long since loosened their grip on Egypt, are still trying to profit from the country.

After his plea for outside funding is turned down, Nasser decides to nationalize the Suez Canal. The canal, which is located almost smack dab in the middle of the country, still belongs to the British. It's kind of equivalent to having a country within a country. Nasser develops plans to secretly nationalize the canal with the help of his fellow country men.

The movie, like I said was enjoyable, rather long, but enjoyable. You couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He worked so hard to get control of a canal that technically belonged to his country anyway only to have England and France launch a world-wide smear campaign against him calling him a fascist among other things. They also double teamed him in a war.

But that feeling of "feeling bad for the guy" was also my main issue with the film. It was as if that was the main goal of the film. Now creating sympathy for your main character isnt an overall bad thing to do - I just dont particularly like watching it for 2.5+ hours.

Nasser in the film is portrayed as an almost super-human individual. The guy works until the wee hours of the moring, yet never needs sleep. He is the doting father to 5 impossibly well behaved children who all crowd around him and fall at his feet every time he enters a room. He is husband to an obedient, supportive wife who absolutely adores him even though he's never home and hardly shows her any affection. And the film made it seem as though this man did not have one critic in the entire country of Egypt at the time (and maybe in reality he didn't at the time, but it still seems odd to me).