Too Early / Too Late(1982)

Too Early / Too Late is an experimental film by Straub-Huillet that draws inspiration from Friedrich Engels's writings and a historical account of two Marxist writers imprisoned under Nasser. Shot across France and Egypt in 1980, the film traces connections between Egypt's peasant uprisings and anti-colonial movements with the class tensions that preceded the French Revolution of 1789. Through archival texts and references to the pioneering 1895 film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, Straub-Huillet construct a meditation on liberation struggles and Western imperialism. The work blends documentary impulses with philosophical inquiry, examining how revolutionary consciousness emerges across different historical moments and geographies.