I Love Cinema

Osama Fawzy's 2004 Egyptian film follows a Coptic family living in Cairo in the sixties. The young boy wants to go to the cinema; his father is a rigid man who counts everything a sin, and his mother has had to suppress her own desires. The subject is how belief is used. The father carries piety as an instrument of fear and everyone in the house lives accordingly; the boy's interest in cinema is the first quiet objection to that order. When the film opened in Egypt it drew a large reaction; some quarters of the Coptic community brought lawsuits and the argument ran on. Mahmoud Hemida plays the father and Layla Olwy the mother. The narrative stays with the child's view and its tone is not cruel. Who it's for: those who like Egyptian cinema and dramas built on religion and family. Who it's not for: viewers with strong religious sensitivities; the film uses scenes of worship and belief critically.