Overview
A gripping exploration of the human psyche and moral ambiguity unfolds in this intense drama.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- brooding
- confrontational
- paranoid
- serious movie night
- arabic cinema discovery
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The doctor, prosecutor, pious parent, and supposedly ignorant son each reveal a darker or more compromised identity beneath an outward social role.
The family’s involvement in drugs and authority reflects broader failures of law, religion, education, and social trust.
The plot explicitly contrasts professional and familial appearances with mercenary, criminal, or authoritarian behavior.
The uneducated son’s emergence as an authoritarian leader is set against compromised figures in medicine, law, and religion.
Films like The Shame, and why
The Night of Counting the Years
morally charged crime drama examining respectable social roles and concealed corruption
The Land
socially observant Egyptian drama focused on family pressure, class, and compromised morality
A Hero of Our Time
tense character-driven drama portraying institutional hypocrisy and conflicting moral identities
Movie Details
- Director
- Ali Abdel-Khalek
- Release Date
- 1982-10-11
- Runtime
- 123 min
- Rating
- 7.6 / 10 (16)
Cast
- Nour El-Sherif
- Mahmoud Abdel Aziz
- Hussein Fahmy
- Noura
- Amina Rizk
- Elham Shahein
- Abdelbadie El Araby
- Salah Nazmi
- Mohamed Abu Hashish
- Tariq Al Dussoki
Common questions
- What is The Shame about?
- An Egyptian moral thriller reveals how respectable identities can conceal criminality, hypocrisy, and the hunger for power.
- What is The Shame like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Shame as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Shame violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Shame as mild.
- Which films are like The Shame?
- Films with a similar feel include The Night of Counting the Years, The Land, and A Hero of Our Time.
- How long is The Shame?
- The Shame runs 123 minutes.
