FRANCE/EGYPT, 16MM, 1.33:1, COLOR, 100’
[Opening credits, white text on black, location sound of bells and chirping]
– Zu früh, zu spät, Trop tôt, trop tard, Too Early, Too Late, Troppo presto, troppo tardi
– A: Friedrich Engels
– [Script, direction, editing, production]
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
– [Photography] Willy Lubtchansky, Caroline Champetier
– [Sound] Louis Hochet, Manfred Blank
– [Assistants] Radovan Tadic, Vincent Nordon, Leo Mingrone, Isaline Panchaud
[Credits before second part]
– B: Mahmud Hussein
[Script, direction, editing, production: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub]
– [Narration] Bahgat el Nadi, Gérard Samaan
– [Sound] Louis Hochet, Manfred Blank
– [Photography] Robert Alazraki, Marguerite Perlado
– [Assistants] Mustafa Darwish, Magda Wassef, Gaber Abdel-Ghani, Bahgat Mostafa
[No end credits]
TEXTS: letter from Friedrich Engels to Karl Kautsky (February 20, 1889); excerpt from Die Bauernfrage in Frankreich und Deutschland by F. Engels (“The Peasant Question in France and Germany,” Die Neue Zeit, 1894–95); statistics in first part excerpted from the Cahiers de doléance; M. Hussein, postface to La Lutte de classes en Égypte de 1945 à 1968 (Class Struggle in Egypt from 1945 to 1968, Paris, F. Maspéro, 1969).
PRODUCTION DATES AND LOCATIONS: first part – 2 weeks in France, June 1980, second part – 3 weeks in Egypt, May 1981. Budget: 400,000 F.
FOUR SOUNDTRACKS EXIST: in German, French, English and Italian. Huillet reads the commentary of the first part in all versions; Bhagat el Nadi reads the commentary for the second part in French and English, Gérard Samaan in German and Italian.
FIRST SCREENING: Kino Arsenal, Berlin (November 8, 1981); 1982 Berlin Film Festival, Inter – nationales Forum des jungen Films (February); released in Paris, Forum des Halles and Action République, February 17, 1982; Collective for Living Cinema, New York (April 30, 1982).
