Latest news with #Swedish-Egyptian
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Eagles of the Republic' Review: Movies Collide With Political Might in Tarik Saleh's Dark and Clever Conspiracy Thriller
Once again navigating a labyrinth of corruption and bad behavior inside contemporary Egypt, writer-director Tarik Saleh delivers another solid, thought-provoking thriller with Eagles of the Republic. Both entertaining and insightful, not to mention darkly funny in its first half, the Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker follows up The Nile Hilton Incident and Cairo Conspiracy with a crime-ridden drama about a famous actor who's forced to play President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in a biopic, then pays a high price for his success. Reteaming with star Fares Fares, who headlined the above-mentioned films, Saleh completes what could be considered his Cairo trilogy, with each movie tackling a hot-button social or political issue through well-crafted genre storytelling. If Nile Hilton focused on drugs and police malfeasance and Conspiracy took on fraud in the world of Muslim clerical schools, Eagles highlights the dirty dealings between the government and the film industry, showing how popular artists are coopted — or rather coerced — into making works of propaganda in a country leaving them few other options. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jafar Panahi: The World's Most Acclaimed Dissident Filmmaker 'Splitsville' Review: Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona in a Winning Indie Comedy That Puts Two Divorcing Couples Through the Wringer Julia Ducournau Stuns Cannes With 'Alpha' The opening reels, which both mock and celebrate the life of fictional Egyptian movie star George Fahmy (Fares), are filled with more comedy than suspense. But as Saleh's script advances, and the actor sees the walls closing in around him on all sides, the tone grows more desperate and the film turns into a straight-out thriller. At a time when movies seem divided between commercial fare and works made strictly for the arthouse, Saleh occupies an intriguing middle ground here, directing a crime story that keeps us engaged while saying plenty about the world we live in — or at least about Egypt right now. Fahmy, who's known throughout the land as the 'Pharoah of the Screen,' has headlined countless blockbusters in his country's longstanding film industry, embodying the kind of success most Egyptians could only dream of. But we immediately see that his life is not all it's cracked up to be: His marriage has fallen apart and his teenage son, Ramy (Suhaib Nashwan), seems to resent him for being a negligent dad. His much younger mistress, Donya (Lyna Khoudri from Papicha), seems to resent him as well, and it doesn't help that Fahmy has to go out in disguise to a pharmacy in order to buy Viagra. But these issues are minor compared to what happens when Dr. Mansour Rula (Amr Waked), an official working directly for El-Sisi's office, corners Fahmy into playing the current president in a new movie celebrating the reigning leader's military exploits before his election in 2014. Much fun is initially made of the fact that Fahmy and El-Sisi look nothing alike — 'He's been bald since kindergarten!' the star clamors — but the reality is that the actor has little choice in the matter, especially when the life of his son is threatened. Fahmy soon ropes in a hit director to helm the project, but on the first day of shooting it's clear that none of them will have any say in a project overseen by Rula, who sits behind a monitor and comments on each scene with regards to how it portrays the president. Censorship rules over the industry and corruption over the rest of society. When Fahmy is not on set, he attends various galas and dinners in town, getting cozy with other powerful higher-ups, including the minister of defense (Tamim Heikal). Unfortunately, the actor also gets cozy with the minister's outspoken girlfriend (Cherien Dabis), putting himself at even more risk when the two begin having an affair. Saleh juggles these dual narrative strands — the troubled movie shoot and Fahmy's harried personal life — with relative ease, even if there are moments when the plot feels a tad convoluted. But everything comes together in a decidedly darker third act that brings the actor face-to-face with the actual president. Suddenly, reality takes over and what felt like a cheesy movie (the one being shot, that is) has dire consequences for all involved. It makes sense that Saleh doesn't live in Egypt, because it's hard to imagine anyone residing there who could make a film that so outwardly criticizes the current regime, whether it's the countless corrupt officials or the methods of coercion used by a government that claims to be a democracy but feels more like a military dictatorship. The closing reels are especially grim in that sense, highlighted by a memorable scene, set in a helicopter, in which Fahmy witnesses just how ruthless El-Sisi's people can be. Fares — who, like the director, is half-Swedish (the other half is Lebanese) — embodies the movie star perfectly, channeling the actor's egomania but also his desire to live freely in a country that offers little freedom, even for people as rich and renowned as Fahmy. 'You played your role perfectly,' someone ironically tells him toward the end, as he realizes success means nothing when everyone is a puppet to power in one way or another. Eagles of the Republic — whose title sounds like one of George Fahmy `'s many box-office hits — offers a clever lesson in how truth can be scarier than fiction, especially in a place where movies serve as both popular entertainment and weapons for the men (they're all men) in charge. Like his previous films, including his underrated Chris Pine effort, The Contractor, Saleh once again proves himself capable of delivering a solid genre flick with a dark message beneath all the action. He may not live in Egypt, but he channels the country's thrills and terrors as if he were a star there himself. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Time Out
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Eagles of the Republic
Imagine George Clooney being coerced into playing Donald Trump in a straight-faced hagiography – perhaps directed by one of White House's new Special Ambassadors – and you've got the predicament faced by the Egyptian movie star at the heart of Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh's new thriller. George Fahmy (Fares Fares), the so-called 'Pharaoh of the Screen', is a much-loved fiftysomething actor carving out a comfortable, westernised living on Cairo's soundstages and in its members' bars, parroting Samuel Beckett quotes to the much younger girlfriend (Lyna Khoudri) who looks to him for a career leg-up. But under the repressive rule of real-life president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, that feckless lifestyle leaves him wide open to blackmail. It's made clear that if he wants to continue having a career and keep his student son out of jail, he'll have to don el-Sisi's old military uniform for a propaganda film called The Will of the People. He's already a cliché, they want to make him a tool too. 'Nothing is for free,' he's told. Including his freedom. Fares, star of the two previous films in Saleh's 'Cairo trilogy', The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and (2023), is a hoot as an egotistical dilettante whose dreams of an easy life in a difficult country are scuppered in brutal fashion. It's an Armando Iannucci-esque send-up of something deadly serious Saleh uses the first half to poke fun at both the regime and the actor, before hairpinning into a final stretch where things turn dark very quickly. It's a jarring tonal shift – like Argo suddenly turning into Costa-Gavras's Z – that makes logical sense but still jolts after all the old-man Viagra jokes that came before. And Eagles of the Republic doesn't serve its female characters especially well. The coolly intellectual wife of a regime figure, Suzanne (Zineb Triki), loses all colour once she falls into bed with George, a man she'd surely see right through, and the actor's loyal, long-time co-star Rula (Cherien Dabis) is reduced to a pawn in the fast-thickening plot. Neither has the impact of the menacing Dr Mansour (Amr Waked), a state security overseer of few words behind the on-set monitor. This is not, of course, the kind of movie you can make in Egypt – or the kind of movie you can make if you have any great desire to live there again. El-Sisi has been the country's president since 2014 and Eagles of the Republic 's world of brutal repression, artistic censorship, and toadying military types jostling for position feels dangerously real. A satire with a dissident energy and a dark denouement, it's an Armando Iannucci-esque send-up of something deadly serious.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cairo-set Cannes thriller takes aim at Egypt's president
Director Tarik Saleh said he decided that, if he was going to address Egyptian politics head-on in his latest film, it needed to include Egypt's current president. In his explosive political thriller "Eagles of the Republic", which premiered in Cannes on Monday, the Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker used real footage of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi and even found a lookalike to briefly play him. "I don't have a choice because he's a constant. He will sit there until he dies," the Sweden-based director told AFP ahead of the screening in the Cannes Festival's main competition. His third Cairo-set feature -- after 2017 "The Nile Hilton Incident" and "Cairo Conspiracy" which won best screenplay at Cannes in 2022 -- includes a hair-raising twist that Saleh said surprised even him when he wrote it. Shot in Turkey with largely non-Egyptian actors, the film starts off following the fictional George Fahmy, Egypt's most celebrated actor, who is pressured into starring in a propaganda film about the country's leader. Fahmy -- played by Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares -- looks nothing like the general turned president, and is much taller than him, but that does not seem to be a problem. The Egyptian military has for decades held a sizeable stake of the economy, and after Sisi seized power it "took over the film industry within a year", Saleh said. He said he was inspired to write his film after a television series called "The Choice" came out in Egypt, in which actor Yasser Galal plays Sisi as he rises to power. "Galal, who's this tall, very handsome actor, plays him. And when I saw that TV series, I was like, this is absurd. I mean, El-Sisi is 1.66" metres (5ft 4ins) tall, Saleh said. The Egyptian leader was portrayed as "very noble in every interaction", and the Islamist president he toppled in 2013, Mohamed Morsi, was depicted as "cross-eyed", he added. - Sisi 'under pressure' - Saleh said he asked himself what he would have done if he lived in Egypt and the authorities asked him to direct such a story. The result is "Eagles of the Republic", in which a filmmaker is also forced against his will to direct the propaganda film. Egypt has been ruled by a president hailing from the military since 1952 -- with the exception of Morsi, who was elected after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Since the worst-ever Gaza war broke out after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Egypt under Sisi has walked a diplomatic tightrope. It has condemned Israel and rejected US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over Gaza and push its more than two million inhabitants into neighbouring Egypt and Jordan. But it has also mediated in truce talks and kept diplomatic relations with Israel. Sisi is "under pressure because of the conflict", said Saleh. ah/fg/rmb
France 24
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Cairo-set Cannes thriller takes aim at Egypt's president
In his explosive political thriller "Eagles of the Republic", which premiered in Cannes on Monday, the Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker used real footage of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi and even found a lookalike to briefly play him. "I don't have a choice because he's a constant. He will sit there until he dies," the Sweden-based director told AFP ahead of the screening in the Cannes Festival's main competition. His third Cairo-set feature -- after 2017 "The Nile Hilton Incident" and "Cairo Conspiracy" which won best screenplay at Cannes in 2022 -- includes a hair-raising twist that Saleh said surprised even him when he wrote it. Shot in Turkey with largely non-Egyptian actors, the film starts off following the fictional George Fahmy, Egypt's most celebrated actor, who is pressured into starring in a propaganda film about the country's leader. Fahmy -- played by Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares -- looks nothing like the general turned president, and is much taller than him, but that does not seem to be a problem. The Egyptian military has for decades held a sizeable stake of the economy, and after Sisi seized power it "took over the film industry within a year", Saleh said. He said he was inspired to write his film after a television series called "The Choice" came out in Egypt, in which actor Yasser Galal plays Sisi as he rises to power. "Galal, who's this tall, very handsome actor, plays him. And when I saw that TV series, I was like, this is absurd. I mean, El-Sisi is 1.66" metres (5ft 4ins) tall, Saleh said. The Egyptian leader was portrayed as "very noble in every interaction", and the Islamist president he toppled in 2013, Mohamed Morsi, was depicted as "cross-eyed", he added. Sisi 'under pressure' Saleh said he asked himself what he would have done if he lived in Egypt and the authorities asked him to direct such a story. The result is "Eagles of the Republic", in which a filmmaker is also forced against his will to direct the propaganda film. Egypt has been ruled by a president hailing from the military since 1952 -- with the exception of Morsi, who was elected after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Since the worst-ever Gaza war broke out after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Egypt under Sisi has walked a diplomatic tightrope. It has condemned Israel and rejected US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over Gaza and push its more than two million inhabitants into neighbouring Egypt and Jordan. But it has also mediated in truce talks and kept diplomatic relations with Israel.
