Not you "Visit to Egypt" postcard movie, this European-Egyptian coproduction had me grabbed to my seat at the local cinema.
Noredin Mostafa is not the talkative kind, nor a very likeable chap. Salwa, the slave labourer living on the edge of Egyptian society, isn't very chatty either, she probably suffered too much already. But what she saw is key to the movie. People like Salwa or "Clinton" are invisible to powerful people like Hatem Shafiq and Kammal Mostafa, Noredin's uncle, who may not be very bright but knows how to defend the status quo. Gina is very beautiful but also, not a very nice character.
Nobody is very clean morally yet this Nordic film shot in Egypt succeeds because of that, it doesn't preach when the truth is all there is to have.
The "cinema verité" approach, nervous camera, gritty social conditions, "trust nobody" psychology, cheap music, "public project" (cheap) buildings shot as if they were the main character. And maybe they are: social classes, specially the very poor (Salwa), the low middle class (the corrupt cops) and the mega rich (Hatem) show all the contradictions of capitalist society painfully. There, on camera, it seems too much to be endured by the people, specially given the corruption everywhere. And in fact this movie, set on 2011 revolutionary times in Egypt, show what happens when the people can't bear enough. I've seldom seen so much police brutality under a "democracy". Surely reality was much worse.
They all preach on moral values, on bad TV, in the family, your bosses, the national security (like a third world FBI), but act on double standards. Gold rules. Money may be a "burning steel" when you go to paradise, as one character says, but in this life, it seems to buy life and death. The poor can be killed like flies and nobody cares.
Violent and beautiful film, great music and photography. Acting, that looks non-professional, is all the better for it.
Watching this movie is like going to Egypt, but the real Egypt. That is probably like any other third world or "developing" country. Only watching it confortably makes it all the more visible and painful. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti at "Caro diario" says that he'd like to shoot a film only with buildings. This film is close to Moretti's dream. You live in this film's buildings. Cheap pensions where people live like animals, bad "unhomely homes" like Noredin's, pricey yet vulgar "love nest" like Gina's place. Palaces like construction tycoon Hatem's, with so many employees at his service it's hard enough to count them all.
I hope this underdog movie gets the popularity it deserves. And people flocking to Egypt, but the real one.
Noredin Mostafa is not the talkative kind, nor a very likeable chap. Salwa, the slave labourer living on the edge of Egyptian society, isn't very chatty either, she probably suffered too much already. But what she saw is key to the movie. People like Salwa or "Clinton" are invisible to powerful people like Hatem Shafiq and Kammal Mostafa, Noredin's uncle, who may not be very bright but knows how to defend the status quo. Gina is very beautiful but also, not a very nice character.
Nobody is very clean morally yet this Nordic film shot in Egypt succeeds because of that, it doesn't preach when the truth is all there is to have.
The "cinema verité" approach, nervous camera, gritty social conditions, "trust nobody" psychology, cheap music, "public project" (cheap) buildings shot as if they were the main character. And maybe they are: social classes, specially the very poor (Salwa), the low middle class (the corrupt cops) and the mega rich (Hatem) show all the contradictions of capitalist society painfully. There, on camera, it seems too much to be endured by the people, specially given the corruption everywhere. And in fact this movie, set on 2011 revolutionary times in Egypt, show what happens when the people can't bear enough. I've seldom seen so much police brutality under a "democracy". Surely reality was much worse.
They all preach on moral values, on bad TV, in the family, your bosses, the national security (like a third world FBI), but act on double standards. Gold rules. Money may be a "burning steel" when you go to paradise, as one character says, but in this life, it seems to buy life and death. The poor can be killed like flies and nobody cares.
Violent and beautiful film, great music and photography. Acting, that looks non-professional, is all the better for it.
Watching this movie is like going to Egypt, but the real Egypt. That is probably like any other third world or "developing" country. Only watching it confortably makes it all the more visible and painful. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti at "Caro diario" says that he'd like to shoot a film only with buildings. This film is close to Moretti's dream. You live in this film's buildings. Cheap pensions where people live like animals, bad "unhomely homes" like Noredin's, pricey yet vulgar "love nest" like Gina's place. Palaces like construction tycoon Hatem's, with so many employees at his service it's hard enough to count them all.
I hope this underdog movie gets the popularity it deserves. And people flocking to Egypt, but the real one.