Pleasure and Suffering

Pleasure and Suffering (Arabic: المتعة والعذاب‎, al-Mutåt wal-Âzab[1] or al-Moutʾah wal-ʾadhâb[2]) is an Egyptian film made circa 1971.[1] The film was directed by Niazi Mostafa.[2] The principal actors are Shams al-Baroudi and Nour al-Sherif.[1]

The main characters are a group of four friends. Nana (Baroudy), a fashion designer, is the leader of the group. Nana has a fear of men, and she expresses anguish when her girlfriend Salwa (Safa' Abu Sâoud) says that her father is arranging a marriage for Salwa to one of her father's coworkers. Samar Habib, author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations, describes Nana as an "ice-queen".[1] Elham (Suhair Ramzi) compulsively steals. She receives sexual pleasure from stealing. The fourth friend is Fifi. Another character is Âdel (Nour Sherif), a male character who is later revealed in the film as a con-man. Âdel expresses an interest in Nana, but Fifi tells Âdel that "she does not like men, she has a complex."[1] Ultimately Âdel and Nana fall in love.[3]

Habib said "The representation of female sexuality in this film thus tends towards the popular understanding that homosexual inclination in women is born out of trauma or a hatred for men, which can be corrected if the right man comes along."[3] Habib argues that the film portrays female homosexuality as something that is transient.[3]