About the Film
The Well of Deprivation remains as one of the most important films that sail in the depths of the complex psyche of its characters, with its charming moments, strong rhythm of events, and inspiring expressions of its image.
In the story written by Ihsan Abdel Quddous and adapted into film by Kamal El Sheikh in 1969, we see Nahed (Soad Hosny); a girl with dissociative identity disorder, not only in terms of behavior, but also in her physical appearance. As if more than one person truly reside within one individual, there is Nahed, the sweet, kind woman in the morning, and then there is Mervat, the flirtatious, promiscuous woman late at night.
As Nahed seeks treatment with the help of her physician (Mahmoud El Meligy), he encounters both personalities. The doctor soon concludes that her illness is the result of a psychological trauma rooted in her childhood, caused by the abuse her father inflicted upon her mother. When he discovered that she had cheated on him, he forced her to spend the rest of her days with him, suffering isolation, estrangement, and emotional deprivation. Growing up with extreme, prolonged sympathy towards her abused mother, Nahed started to embody both her natural personality in the morning, and the personality of her love-thirsty mother at night. The film poses the dilemma of finding a suitable course of treatment in a psycho-social melodrama, with dialogue by Youssef Francis, and performances by Mariam Fakhr Eldin as the mother; Salah Nazmi as the father; and Nour El Sherif as the lover.
The Well of Deprivation represents one of Soad Hosny’s most iconic roles. Not only does she excel in the performance of two personalities in one body, but also the expression of contradictory and complex human feelings, which leads us to an emotional state of complete pity. The unique and creative story puts us in the heart of Kamal El Sheikh’s world and his style, building strongly on the internal universe of his characters, and intensifying the atmosphere through the dramatic distribution of effective lighting. His technique manages to highlight the sea of contradicting sentiments as the light wrestles with the dark, in addition to the masterful use of music, and the perfect choice of using meaningful silence.
Khaled Mahmoud
