From films like István Szabó’s 1981 Mephisto to Rainer Werner Fassbinder Veronika Voss from 1982we all know that nothing good comes from musicians who chose to bend the knee to fascist powerbrokers. What may seem like a clever play by the patriots always leads to disaster when the political elite inevitably descend from their glorious perch.
Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh concludes a trilogy of films examining high-level corruption in his country (preceded by 2017‘s The Nile Hilton incident again 2022‘s The Cairo Conspiracy), with the shining image of the icon of the modern screen, the dominance of existing culture is forcibly approved by the ruling party, and suddenly his high image of the continuous beauty of the arts is transformed into something else entirely.
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Leading man Fares Fares delivers an impressive and graceful performance as George Fahmy, known in Egypt as .“Pharaoh of the Screen” and his face adorning movie posters, murals and social media feeds up and down his country. Indeed, the film draws many glimpses into the ancient times with its urban penthouses structured like modern pyramids and the ruling class as untouchable aristocracy with the power of life or death.
George is also the target of a fundamentalist all-female censorship board for her sexually suggestive and moral films (one of which includes The First Egyptian on the Moon), and his off-screen, Stella Artois-quaffing hi-jinx sit with him somewhere between cad and rotter, with his now-estranged son and wife and little girls in apartments across town who want to get ahead in the movie business.
As the world seems to feed on him, George finds himself grinding his teeth in the middle of a real minefield, where bombastic government officials insist that he not only accept the role of a stay-at-home bloat (since 2014) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, but also delivered a rousing keynote speech at an upcoming military meeting to mark the anniversary of 2013 a revolution/coup d’etat (remove as it works) allowing Al-Sissi to power.
It’s a sticky wicket for sure, but the over-confident George feels his celebrity status is so great that he’ll walk away from all this smelling of roses, and a fat check from his dubious, legitimately difficult paymasters. The presence of a person known as Dr. Mansour (Amr Waked) on set appears to be pulling the strings of the avatar director, setting up the first of many black actors on our hero’s increasingly muddled journey into the unknown.
At first, Saleh’s film presents itself as a gaudy ensemble satire that achieves its fish-in-a-barrel objectives with endearing precision. The idea of a film production by the committee perhaps goes beyond the context of this story and can be a place for many productions of major studios around the world. Yet the film veers awkwardly into political thriller territory, as shadowy government watchdogs are quick to prove they have the means to get you to do something.
It’s a smooth and appropriately funny story that never goes deeper than the surface in its broad analysis of the beautiful intersection between culture and state. George loses power in himself, and the film duly loses interest as it becomes a beautiful weed turned in the wind of amoral power.
