Induced Labor

Khaled Diab's 2018 Egyptian comedy follows a couple looking for ways to get an American visa. The wife is carrying twins and the birth is close; believing the children will gain citizenship if born in the United States, the pair set off at the last moment. The humour comes from timing. The birth could begin at any moment and the whole plan rests on that race; the narrative turns bureaucracy, airline rules and border questioning into comic material in turn. Maged El Kedwany leads. The tone is light and the jokes come thick; the narrative does not approach migration from a serious place and passes no judgement on its characters. Some passages refer to the political news of the period. Who it's for: those who like Egyptian comedy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting migration treated seriously; the film uses it purely as comic machinery.