Fares Fares, Mari Malek, Yaser Aly Maher
This brilliant Egyptian thriller won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize this year and is due to screen at London Film Festival. Made by Swedish filmmaker Tarik Saleh (Tommy, Metropia), it brings a Nordic noir sensibility to a Cairo story inspired by a real murder case.
Police detective Noredin (Fares Fares) is investigating a murder in the capital’s Nile Hilton Hotel. Initially, the amoral Noredin views the job as just another opportunity to pocket a few more bribes. But as he uncovers increasingly disturbing details about the reach of the crime, this ambivalent anti-hero finds his conscience piqued.
Excellent performances and an intelligent script elevate this drama from a conventional procedural to an excoriating portrait of systemic corruption, set – movingly – in the days before the 2011 Tahrir Square uprising.
