Bittersweet

Masry went to America with his family as a child. Twenty years later he returns to Egypt; he works as a photographer and wants to open a gallery here. At the airport he makes a choice: he shows his Egyptian passport rather than his American one. From that moment everything changes. At the hotel he is quoted a different price, he is kept waiting in queues, official business does not move and nobody takes him seriously. The same man, entering on the American passport, finds every door open. Masry tries it and compares the two treatments. Khaled Marei directs; Khaled Diab wrote the screenplay. Ahmed Helmy plays Masry; Lotfy Labib and Edward are in the cast. It is an Egyptian production. Omar Khairat wrote the music. The matter it treats is being treated as a foreigner in one's own country; the film builds it as a question of identity. The narrative looks at Egyptian society with an outside eye and takes direct aim at the failures of daily life. Its form is black comedy; the events proceed ridiculously and the consequences are bitter. Its ending ties the criticism to a declaration of belonging, and that section was argued over. The film drew wide interest in Egypt on release and its social criticism was discussed. Ahmed Helmy was known as a comic actor at the time and this part is more dramatic. Its limit is structure; the narrative proceeds in pieces and some sections stand like sketches. Who it is for: viewers who like Egyptian cinema and social satire. Who it is not for: it is scattered, the ending didactic, and the references local.