Cairo Conspiracy
A winner at Cannes last year, Tarik Saleh's political thriller proves relevant if uneven.
Although Tarik Saleh had a Swedish mother and was born in Stockholm, his father was Egyptian and it is that country which is the setting for two of his films. His noirish thriller The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) was set in Cairo and, as the new title for his latest piece (known previously as Boy from Heaven) confirms, this work again plays out in that city even if it was Turkey that provided the key location for the shoot.
Given this background, it may seem strange that the films that are evoked by Cairo Conspiracy are the British dramas made by Basil Dearden and Michael Relph of which the best (and the best remembered) are Sapphire (1959) and Victim (1961). The comparison is apt because those works were commercial movies which utilised the thriller genre to comment on social issues (racism in Sapphire and the laws which then put homosexuals at risk of blackmail in Victim). Saleh’s film does much the same thing with its suspenseful tale of political corruption and violence, a film of potent commercial appeal made with the intention of functioning as a dramatic entertainment while also serving to draw attention to a serious issue highly relevant to life in Egypt today.
Cairo Conspiracy is not without an echo of the tales told by the late John le Carré. It tells of a country youth, Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), who learns from his village imam that he has acquired a scholarship to attend that highly distinguished Islamic institution the Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The young man arrives there just before the university’s religious leader the Grand Imam dies thus creating a situation in which finding his replacement will lead to complex political manoeuvring by rival forces. A general (Mohammad Bakri) makes it clear to State Security that Beblawi (Jawad Altawil) is their man of choice because he is likely to follow whatever line the President requires. Sheikh Durani (Ramzi Choukair) is certainly an opponent they deplore since they regard him as being associated with radical views that may be akin to those of a militant student group in the University headed by Soliman (Sherwan Haji). A third candidate, Sheikh Negm (Makram J. Khoury), is popular but too genuine a man to be easily manipulated. A central figure in all of this is Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares). His boss in State Security is Sobhy (Moe Ayoub) but it is Ibrahim who takes the central role in contacting the newcomer Adam and asking him to become an informant. Adam’s immediate task is to appear to be sympathetic to the views of Soliman and his group so that he will be taken up by them thus enabling him to reveal the identities of those involved. From early on, Adam has been friendly with another young student, Zizo (Mehdi Dehdi), but then Zizo is killed and Adam realises that this has happened because Zizo had been acting as an informant too.
The first half of Cairo Conspiracy works very well being fast moving and adroitly edited and gaining too from good performances, especially those of the two leading actors Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares. It also helps that Saleh takes enough time at the start to create a persuasive portrait of Adam’s home life in the country so that we can then feel concern for him when he gets caught up in what is happening at the University and is unsure what he should do. That Colonel Ibrahim is himself partly at odds with the line being taken by State Security helps to increase our own uncertainty as to who is trustworthy and who is not and, despite Istanbul standing in for Cairo, the setting is vividly evoked and persuasive.
The story is not entirely without improbabilities, but the film readily drives one along with it. In time though, there is a drawback. Cairo Conspiracy suffers from the paradox that films which please by moving fast eventually leave the viewer feeling that so much has been seen already that the conclusion must be nearer than it is. Here the film carries one with it very effectively for an hour or so, but after that there is still another full hour to go. For a while, the film switches to a fresh element – the discovery of a scandal involving Sheikh Durani which could be used to discredit him – but this is somewhat less compelling than what has gone before. Then, even more crucially, the later stages of the story find it becoming over-convoluted and less convincing.
In this technically accomplished film, Saleh has successfully used his fictional tale to pinpoint corruption and the risk that this carries in Egypt should state influence result in particular religious leaders being promoted to ensure an alliance that adds weight to political power. Putting this across in a suspenseful tale is an adroit move that has the potential to work well. However, for that is to be achieved the story itself needs to be compelling and in time this one comes to seem overextended and to suffer from plotting which feels increasingly fictional and set up. Ultimately this plays as a film that falls into two halves with the first far more effective than the second.
Original title: Walad Min Al Janna.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Makram J. Khoury, Moe Ayoub, Sherwan Haji, Mohammad Bakri, Mehdi Dehbi, Ramzi Choukair, Jawad Altawil, Ahmed Lassaoui, Samy Soliman, Hassan El Sayed.
Dir Tarik Saleh, Pro Fredrik Zander, Screenplay Tarik Saleh, Ph Pierre Aïm, Pro Des Roger Rosenberg, Ed Theis Schmidt, Music Krister Linder, Costumes Denise Östholm.
Atmo Production/Memento Films/Film i Väst/Oy Bufo Ab/Haymaker/Arte France Cinéma-Picturehouse Entertainment.
121 mins. Sweden/France/Finland/Denmark. 2022. US Rel: 7 January 2023. UK Rel: 14 April 2023. Cert. 12A.
