Abu Ali

Ahmed Nader Galal's 2005 Egyptian film brings together two people on the run. A young man is fleeing troubles of his own; the woman he meets on the road is fleeing something else, and the two form an enforced partnership. Reports about them in the press turn them into notorious criminals and there is nobody left they can tell what actually happened. The film runs its chase in a comic register and satirises how the media inflates the affair, with impersonations, disguises and misunderstandings as the source of the humour. The rapport between Karim Abdel Aziz and Mona Zaki carries it. The production keeps to the conventions of Egyptian commercial cinema of the period and includes song sequences. Who it's for: viewers who like Egyptian comedy and stories about people on the run. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a coherent plot; the film holds its logic loosely.