El Lemby

Wael Ehsan's 2002 Egyptian film made Mohamed Saad a star overnight and opened a period in Egyptian comedy. El-Limby lives with his mother Faransa in a run-down neighbourhood, speaks badly and struggles to understand the world; he falls for the neighbour's daughter, her father objects to the marriage, and his mother pushes him to find work. The character's strange manner of speech and vocabulary lodged in Egyptian popular culture and were imitated for years. The comedy rests entirely on that language, which makes it very hard to carry in translation. A class dimension exists, but the film uses it as environment rather than criticism. Its sequels and imitators created a template that lasted a long time in Egyptian cinema. Who it's for: viewers interested in popular Egyptian comedy and the mainstream of 2000s Arab cinema. Who it's not for: anyone bothered by slang and dialect humour disappearing in translation, or wanting plot and structure.