A Cultural Film

Mohamed Amin's 2000 Egyptian comedy is about three friends with a simple aim: to watch a tape. The trouble is that none of them has an empty house, a video player or a television. To watch it they have to bring together one man's flat, another's machine and a third's screen, and at each step someone new joins the group. The film turns that simple idea into a night-long chase and takes its humour from their helplessness. Underneath sits the matter of young men in Egypt having no private space until they marry and of sexuality being kept entirely hidden, which the film shows without stating. It was made cheaply and brought together the young performers of the period. Who it's for: viewers who like Egyptian comedy and youth films. Who it's not for: anyone who will find the handling of the subject crude; the humour is built on that axis.