Afrita Hanem is one of the Classics in Egyptian Movie History. It features both Samia Gamal (a legendary dancer, considered by many to be the greatest Egyptian dancer of all times) and Farid Al-Atrache (one of the best Arab musicians of all times). The two have starred in countless romantic comedies together and are beloved by the Egyptian public even today. This particular movie is the Story of a poor singer(Farid) who finds a magic lamp with a beautiful genie(Samia). The Genie falls in love with the singer instantly because he looks exactly like her long lost love. She promises to give him anything his heart desires. The singer who is in love with his co-star and bosses daughter tries everything he can to gain her interest but his Genie does everything she can to thwart his plans. This leads to some very humorous events. Although the movie is old and it's values are dated it can still be seen and understood by all audiences today including Americans with little to no understanding of Arab or Egyptian culture. Just like the values in our old movies in America are different from the values we hold to day. If you keep in mind what the early portion of the 19th century was like and keep those conservative values in your thought the movie should make a lot of sense. Someone else wrote that one of the scenes which had demons and dancing girls in it, didn't make any sense but seems to have forgotten that that was a part of their show not an actual event that supposedly happens to them in the movie. Throughout the movie they work in an Opera house producing musical and dance productions which are highly successful. This scene is from their show. It is also symbolically supposed to represent the torment that they had to go through to be with each other. The film quality is comparable to American films of the same era. Also if you have the DVD there are English subtitles which make the movie much easier to understand. I'm assuming that the person who wrote the previous review is probably watching one without subtitles.
