The Unknown Woman (film)

The Unknown Woman (aliases: The Anonymous Woman, Egyptian Arabic: المرأة المجهولة, romanized: al-marʾa al-majhūla, El-Mara'a el-Maghola, El murra el maghoula) is a 1959 Egyptian film written and directed by Mahmoud Zulfikar. It is based on the play Madame X. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Shadia, Shoukry Sarhan, Kamal El-Shennawi, Emad Hamdy and Zahrat El-Ola.

The Unknown Woman was produced and distributed by El Nasr Films Company and was released in Egypt on December 7, 1959, followed by the worldwide release. The film received high reviews, and It was the highest-grossing film in the Soviet Union for 1961, the only African film to ever achieve this box-office success. The film was remade in 1978 under the title Life is Wasted, My Son (ضاع العمر يا ولدي).

The film revolves in 1930, around Fatima who marries Dr. Ahmed and they give birth to Samir. She goes to visit her friend Souad, the police attack the place because it is suspicious and arrest everyone, including Fatima, she gets released but Ahmed divorces her. Fatima is forced to work as a singer in a Cabaret, the thug Abbas asks Fatima for a sum of money (a royalty) in order to protect her. Selling the lottery tickets, her son Samir becomes a famous lawyer, Abbas gets out of prison, and threatens Fatima in order to blackmail her family, so she kills him, then Ahmed is surprised by what she reached and regrets what he did to her, and her son Samir defends her and his father reveals her truth to him in public in court.