Too Early / Too Late

Too Early / Too Late

100 mins | Documentary | Feb. 17, 1982

Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).

Too Early / Too Late

100 mins | Documentary | Feb. 17, 1982

Too Early / Too Late
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).
IMDb rating 5.5
Producers
Original title Trop tôt, trop tard
Directors Magda Wassef, Isaline Panchaud, Baghat Mostafa, Mustafa Darwish, Gaber Abdel-Ghani, Leo Mingrone, Radovan Tadic, Vincent Nordon, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Writers Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub

Cast

Danièle Huillet

as Narrator (segment A) (voice)

Bahgat Elnadi

as Narrator (segment B) (voice) (as Bahgat el Nadi)

Gerard Samaan

as Narrator (segment B) (voice)