The protests and civil unrest in Egypt during the Arab spring revolution are the core of this political drama with a love twist. It’s an Egyptian movie, made by and for Egyptians. There is no typical wife-beating humour here (which seems to be typical for Egyptian blockbuster comedies). No, the main lead character is a relatively strong, smart, intelligent and brave woman. Which must be rare. Not sure if this movie was a success in its native country, but I cannot see it enter international world cinema festivals.
It’s too Egyptian. There are a lot of references to the country’s clashing and contradicting societies that an introduction of some kind would come in handy. Everyone knows the Arab language sounds hard and aggressive for foreigners (so does holland-Dutch by the way), but the dialogue in this movie is just a continuous screaming. It’s very tough to listen to. The supposed ‘love’ element is a joke. The independent smart rebellious woman falls for a dumb illiterate conservative married man. It just doesn’t make sense. I understand Egyptians cannot show any sex on-screen, but the supposed scandalous meeting between the two lovers is just unclear to me. Did they just talk or was there a kiss? I cannot imagine there was something more than a kiss.
So what is it about? A political activist is fascinated by a horse rider of a lower class who opposes the ideas of the revolution and gets hired by the regime to fight its opponents. The more she tries to convince him for her cause the more he gets forced to back the cause of his regime loving boss.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2368599
