I crossed the the bridge over the White Nile to Omdurman with a sense of pleasurable anticipation. The print looked as if it had been circulating in the Middle East for years, being rather washed out and scratched, perhaps because of sand in the atmosphere. I found the film difficult to follow. The Arabic sub-titles didn’t help much, because I couldn’t read them well or quickly enough. But as the film was coming to an end, I cottoned on to the reason for my perplexities. The projectionist that evening showed the usual three reels in the order 1 : 3 : 2!
