Written and directed by Saleh, produced by the General Film Organization in Syria, and starring both Egyptian and Syrian actors, the film was screened at the first Damascus Youth Film Festival in 1972 and was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors’ Fortnight program. An adaptation of the 1962 novel Men in the Sun, by revolutionary writer Ghassan Kanafani, it follows three separate Palestinian refugees, in the wake of the Nakba, who come together to make a deal with a water-tank driver that claims he can smuggle them into Kuwait, where they hope to find work and a better life.

The Dupes is lauded today, and at the time of its release, not just as a historical landmark, but for its meticulous craftsmanship. The screenplay adapted from Kanafani’s story is incisive, particularly in its use of flashbacks to recall the backstory of each of the four men, who each have their own chapter in the novel. As each player is introduced in the primary timeline, Saleh takes us back to where they were before—through voice over narration and silent montage, we see the journey of each man, the life they once knew (this film is the first motion picture to depict Palestinian life before the Nakba), their families, their unfortunate situations, their breaking points—and in returning to the present, gives the main timeline a causal continuity…..READ MORE — SALEEM ALBEIK