43rd Cairo International Film Festival

12/01/2021

Festival Reviews

Riverbed

by Deborah Young | Nov 25, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals, Spotlight

Lebanese actress Carole Abboud brings a sense of wistful loneliness to the role of an independent woman estranged from her adult daughter in Bassem Breche’s sketch-like feature debut.

Cairo 2022: The Awards

by TheFilmVerdict | Nov 25, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

Firas Khoury’s notable feature debut ‘Alam’ about Palestinian teens living in Israel fought off the competition to win Cairo’s main prize.

The Family

by Jay Weissberg | Nov 24, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

The toxic privilege of Algeria’s ministerial elite is the target of Merzak Allouache’s fitfully successful mix of class satire and political thriller.

Far from the Nile

by Jay Weissberg | Nov 23, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

Cairo awarded its best documentary prize to this broadly appealing fly-on-the-wall documentary about a group of musicians from countries bordering the Nile who go on a demanding hundred-day-tour of the U.S.

The Nightsiren

by Carmen Gray | Nov 22, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

A past tragedy haunts the Slovak woodlands in this eerie mystery-horror in which a woman labelled a witch by villagers reclaims her power.

Alam

by Jay Weissberg | Nov 22, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals, Spotlight

Writer-director Firas Khoury refreshingly normalizes the lives of a group of Palestinian teens in Israel and then adds a political overlay in this notable debut that deserves more attention than accorded in Toronto.

Light Upon Light

by Deborah Young | Nov 22, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

Danish director and anthropologist Christian Suhr’s feature documentary offers a respectful yet compelling peek into the surprisingly diverse communities of Sufi worshippers within the Islamic tradition of Egypt.

Something You Said Last Night

by Deborah Young | Nov 18, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals, Spotlight

Luis De Filippis’ laid-back tale about an embattled but loving family on vacation pops with a riveting Carmen Madonia as the trans sister.

Houria

by Deborah Young | Nov 17, 2022 | Cairo, CAIRO 2022, Festivals

Young actress Lyna Khoudri sparkles as an Algerian dance student forced to reorder her priorities after she is physically assaulted in an emotion-clad feminist drama directed by Mounia Meddour (‘Papicha’).

No Land’s Man

by Deborah Young | Jan 11, 2022 | Cairo, Festivals

Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a pathological liar whose romance with an Australian girl unveils a horrifying backstory of racism in Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s genre-bending pleaser.

Becoming

by Jay Weissberg | Dec 15, 2021 | Cairo, Festivals

An omnibus of women-directed Saudi shorts that acts as a calling card for the diversity of rising talent in the Kingdom, offering five largely strong entries highlighting the ways women negotiate traditional female and non-female spaces.

Death of a Virgin and the Sin of Not Living

by Deborah Young | Dec 9, 2021 | Cairo, Festivals

The fears and longings of four Lebanese boys on their way to lose their virginity is conveyed in interior monologues in George Peter Barbari’s poignant and deeply original first film.

The Stranger

by Jay Weissberg | Dec 8, 2021 | Cairo, Featured, Festivals

Palestine’s 2022 Oscar submission is a brooding story of lives in limbo in the Golan Heights, stunningly shot and wrenching in its moving evocation of a man mired in self-loathing and paralyzed by the physical and existential no-man’s land resulting in the Israeli occupation and the disaster in Syria.

Diary of Gabrielle Street

by Deborah Young | Dec 5, 2021 | Cairo, Festivals

Rashid Masharawi’s upbeat lockdown documentary set in Montmartre is a one man show full of charm and humanity.

A Second Life

by Jay Weissberg | Dec 4, 2021 | Cairo, Featured, Festivals

A well-calibrated debut with a fine central performance, weaving together notions of class and familial betrayal when an impoverished mother sells her son’s kidney to a well-off family in exchange for a better life.

Tomorrow

by Deborah Young | Dec 4, 2021 | Cairo, Festivals

In the bitter drama of a human rights lawyer struggling with mental illness, well-known actor Dhafer L’Abidine directs, produces and stars in a passionate plea to Tunisians to reclaim their revolution.

Daughters of Abdulrahman

by Jay Weissberg | Nov 29, 2021 | Cairo, Festivals, Red Sea

Predictably stereotyped characterizations still deliver some enjoyable moments in this female empowerment story that unfortunately also plays to the region’s homophobia but will be a crowd-pleaser in the Arab world.