The Return of the Prodigal Son (1978)
Directed by Youssef Chahine · Cinematography by Abdel Aziz Fahmy
120 min62 frames
DramaMusic
Stills, screencaps & shots from The Return of the Prodigal Son
16 of 62 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.
















What is The Return of the Prodigal Son about?
Freed after spending years in prison, an activist's homecoming turns into a dark affair as his disillusion clashes with his family's expectations. Demonstrating Chahine’s eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and profound portrait of personal and political disillusionment.
The Return of the Prodigal Son is a 1976 Egyptian drama film directed by director Youssef Chahine. The film is about a family's younger son who returns to his rural home after 12 years in Cairo. His family and town had pinned their hopes on him being successful, but when they learn that he was imprisoned, it stirs intense reactions.
Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where can you watch The Return of the Prodigal Son?
US availability for The Return of the Prodigal Son (1978). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.
Who stars in The Return of the Prodigal Son?
Hesham Selimas Ibrahim Tolba Madbouly
Majida El Roumias Tafida Hassouna
Ahmed Mehrezas Ali Mohamed Madbouly
Who made The Return of the Prodigal Son?
Youssef ChahineDirector
Abdel Aziz FahmyCinematography
Mahmoud El KholyProducer
Seif AbdelrahmanProducer
What does the cinematography of The Return of the Prodigal Son look like?
Across 62 sampled frames, The Return of the Prodigal Son builds its coverage from medium shots (52% of the sample), with close-ups (24%) carrying much of the rest. Cinematographer Abdel Aziz Fahmy keeps 44% of it in soft, low-key light. 47% of the frames play at night or in the failing light of dusk. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Focus stays shallow in 61% of the frames, isolating subjects from their surroundings. The production design places the film in the 1970s.
What is the color palette of The Return of the Prodigal Son?
The dominant colors across the sampled frames of The Return of the Prodigal Son (1978) are #302c2d, #0b090c, #48342f, #f2f2f2, #564f4c, #d3d0cc — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.
#302c2d#0b090c#48342f#f2f2f2#564f4c#d3d0cc
See the full The Return of the Prodigal Son colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 62 frames of The Return of the Prodigal Son (1978), and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.
Techniques in this film
More films by Youssef Chahine
More Drama films
Cast, trailer and streaming data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.