This 1959 color documentary film with Arabic intertitles and hopeful English narration tours the then-recently established (and subsequently short-lived) United Arab Republic’s two joint regions: Egypt and Syria, with visits to Giza and Damascus showing architectural landmarks and local agricultural developments (TRT: 15:56).
Opening titles: “Developed and Printed in DEFA Studios Berlin, Written by Ramadan Khalifa, Photographed by Dia El Mahdy, Supervised by Hassan Helmy” (0:06). A trio of pyramids sit on a desert horizon under a clear blue sky. The Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt. Single pyramids in closeup: Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. The Great Sphinx of Giza at the Giza Pyramid Complex, also called the Giza Necropolis (0:25). Feluccas, traditional sailboats of Egypt’s Nile river (1:08). A large plantation mansion and fields. Farmers till the earth (1:23). A desert sunrise. Narration invokes the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and its result, the Agrarian Reform Law. Field workers meet with Egyptian locals and interview them, taking notes (2:14). Local representatives of a cooperative government meet, and farmers speak to a council. A sequence of spinning intertitles in Arabic (2:52). A grove of trees and crops along a rural road. Farmers cut down tall stalks, forming bundles. Cotton picking. Vast stretches of barren desert with irrigation pipes and canals (4:01). Water bursts forth and flows through a stream to a farm (4:50). A pipe feeds toward sprinklers watering trees. A railcar passes by. Sprinklers in closeup (5:50). A large planned community complex. A van drives past a garden. Zoom out on a housing subdivision (6:30). Tractors with tires and continuous track plows are introduced to the farmland. Teams of men spray insecticides without protective gear (7:11). Burlap sacks are piled up alongside mules in a marketplace. Shelves of eggs in an incubation center. Closeup on a tray of chicken eggs being loaded into an incubator (8:15). An opened drawer reveals newly hatched baby chicks (9:00). A fully grown red rooster in closeup, and with a group of hens. A man carries baskets of eggs (9:26). A veterinary center cares for a horse, a lamb. A stockyard of cattle (9:55). The Giza Pyramid complex bustles with activity of camels, the Sphinx in the background (10:18). The scene shifts to “the Syrian section of the United Arab Republic” with a panorama of densely packed Damascus rooftops (10:28). The Tekkiye Mosque or Sultan Selim Mosque in Damascus, Syria, near the Barada River (10:50). Stained glass art and a decorative entryway (10:57). Sunbaked fields. A woman and child haul bundles of hay on a donkey. Narration speaks of feudalism vs. social justice. A closeup on the face of a crying blonde child (11:05). Women use a stone grinding device. Oxen plow dry fields. Shoveling grain (11:49). Waters of the northern region. A montage of large water wheels in action (12:34). A public square festooned with flags and celebration banners welcomes President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Josip Broz Tito, President of the Yugoslav Republic, to celebrate the first anniversary of the 1958 merging of Egypt and Syria into the UAR (13:17). Soldiers salute President Nasser. Crowds of onlookers. Women soldiers on parade. Flags fly. Nasser waves and shakes hands (13:43). Narration: “The land has gone back to its rightful owners” over a farmland panorama. Montage of previous scenes (15:01). End title: “Fare Well” (15:41).
Syria seceded from the UAR after the 1961 Syrian coup. Egypt continued to be known officially as the United Arab Republic until 1971.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
