The first time I watched Return of the Prodigal Son was after my mom told me her brother had taken her to the cinema to see the film as a graduation gift. She said she didn’t understand anything, just like with every Youssef Chahine film! This musical melodrama, Chahine’s first film after his Trilogy of Defeat, is difficult to fully grasp, just like the time it was made in: it resists straightforward interpretation. Every time I return to it, I feel I have witnessed something different, not just about the film, but also about the present moment, and the familiar weight of collective defeat from the not-so-distant past. The return of Ali, the village’s defeated savior, is not what the story is about. The real story is about the youngest couple, Ibrahim and Tafida who despite everything, still carry their hope to an uncertain future where there are no heroes, no saviors! Like my mother, the film never gave me answers, but time and again, it lays a heaviness and a lingering sense of melancholy on me. — YOSRA ELMALLAH