Badal Faqed

Ahmad Alaa Aldeeb's 2009 Egyptian film follows twins separated soon after birth. One grows up in a slum with a dancer, the other with a well-off family; one becomes a drug dealer, the other a police officer. The premise uses that symmetry. When the two come face to face, the narrative asks not who is guilty but what the same person becomes under different conditions; the question of class is put directly. Ahmed Ezz plays both roles. The narrative uses melodramatic elements freely and leans on coincidence. The action sequences take wide space and the close makes its emotional emphasis openly. Who it's for: those who like Egyptian action melodrama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting realism; the film builds its plot on coincidence.