Can’t Complain

Ahmed Nader Galal's 2007 Egyptian film is about triplet brothers raised on a single birth certificate. The family was poor and never registered all three, so legally the brothers count as one person. What looks at first like an ordinary bureaucratic hitch turns serious when one of them gets caught up in a crime: in the eyes of the law, there is no way to say which of them is which. Ahmed Helmy plays all three, distinguishing them through gesture, speech rhythm and posture. The film moves between comedy and thriller, joining its idea about identity and official records to the bureaucratic reality of Egypt. It was among the most watched Egyptian popular films of the 2000s. Who it's for: viewers who like Arab popular comedy and stories built on mistaken identity. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a consistent genre and a realistic legal plot.