Best Times

Hala Khalil's 2004 Egyptian film brings three women who have been friends since childhood back together years later. Salma has stayed with her stepfather after her mother's death and sets out to trace the sender of letters she cannot identify. That search takes her to her old friends. The film does something unusual for Egyptian cinema at the time: it tells women's lives through their relationships with each other rather than with men. That the three come from different classes and made different choices also makes the social layers of Cairo visible. Hanan Turk, Hend Sabry and Menna Shalaby carry it between them. The telling is calm and the plot is thin; the real matter is measuring the distance between the past and the present. Khalil's direction manages to stay clear of melodrama. Who it's for: those curious about women's narratives in contemporary Arab cinema. Who it's not for: viewers who want a strong plot; the dramatic tension is low, and that is a deliberate choice.