A socially radical film, with superb cinematography, showing the breakdown of social relations in the hara, the popular neighborhood, during World War II, when local merchants begin to hoard goods to sell on the black market. Life in the neighborhood is shown in all its detail, and the story includes one of the few instances in Egyptian cinema where the people try to solve their own problems rather than wait for an external savior. The Black Market was made in 1944 but was banned until 1946. (Ironically, the influx of capital from war profiteering is sometimes cited as a means by which the film industry was able to greatly expand production.) Director Kamil al-Telmessani was also a painter and a novelist who belonged to the group Art and Freedom.-Alia Arasoughly