El-Lanaa

• 1984
• 2 hr 0 mins

• Watchlist

Based on the 1963 movie Shock Corridor by Samuel Fuller (1911-1997), Lanaa is also about a reporter who pretends to be insane in order to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital to investigate a murder. The disjunction with the 1963 film occurs in the inmates: these patients represent all levels of society and their problems. One is an engineer implicated in corruption, another is a performer destroyed by his agent, and yet another is a doctor who practiced euthanasia on his terminally ill, cancer-ridden wife. As the reporter begins to "lose" his sanity in order to fit back into the society that put these inmates under lock and key, questions arise as to what constitutes the dividing line between who is sane, and who is not. This first-time feature by director Houssein El-Wakil is interesting and the acting carries the story believably.