During the 1980s, five young directors emerged in Egypt, among them Sohag-born Atef El-Tayeb. These five marked a significant and distinct phase in the history of Egyptian cinema, a phase known as “New Realism.” There was a common thread among them—perhaps most notably, the concerns of that period, which came right after the 1970s and served as the real practical implementation of the Infitah (open-door economic policy) laws, and the sudden societal changes in the country, which transformed its direction—ideologically and morally—into a new social fabric that became the subject of many films, including El-Tayeb’s masterpiece The Bus Driver.

The film captures telling signs of societal transformation through its characters; the titular protagonist represents the generation that triumphed in the October War, despite being burdened with the heavy legacy of defeat inherited from their parents’ generation—the Nasserist era, with all its dreams and defeats. The family’s carpentry workshop, threatened with closure due to unpaid taxes, symbolizes the slow erasure of their identity. By the bitter end, the film cements the idea of inevitable defeat for the marginalized or oppressed—across all eras. — WAEL SAED