
1979 · drama · biography · egyptian
Directed by Youssef Chahine2h 13m1979
Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.
Our read: Alexandria… Why? (1979) reads as a neutral, steady, inventive drama · biography · egyptian entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Neutral, steady, measured drama / biography, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.




Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
“You want a personal coming-of-age story amid WWII in Alexandria.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if you want fast moving plot or light escapism tonight.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Alexandria… Why?, with why →
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →