Fly Out

Ahmed El Gendy's 2009 Egyptian comedy begins when a shy vet meets a genie. Baheeg is in love with Laila, who brings her sick dog to his clinic, but cannot say so. The genie who appears on his birthday has to grant him wishes in order to graduate from genie school, and Baheeg uses them to turn himself into a series of different people to catch her attention. The film is built on Ahmed Mekky's facility with multiple roles, imitating a different type in each section: the hero, the poet, the tough guy. It keeps to the habits of Egyptian popular comedy of the time, and because the jokes rest on language and wordplay some of them are lost in subtitles. That Baheeg fails each time because he is not himself is the film's idea. Who it's for: viewers who like Egyptian comedy and Ahmed Mekky. Who it's not for: anyone without Arabic; much of the humour depends on wordplay.