Ramadan Mabrouk Abou El Allamen Hamouda

Wael Ehsan's 2008 Egyptian film follows Ramadan, an Arabic teacher everyone in his village is wary of, taking a job at a private school in Cairo. He tries to apply the same discipline there; the students idolise a pop singer, and before long he falls for the same woman. The film is built on Mohamed Henedi's comic identity and its humour comes largely from differences of speech and the contrast between the provinces and the city. The story does not leave the template: the hard man softens, the students come to love him. Its weakness is leaving the teacher's authoritarian methods unquestioned and writing the woman character as a function. It was a large commercial success. Who it's for: viewers who like Egyptian popular comedy and Mohamed Henedi's work. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a story outside the template, or troubled that authoritarian teaching goes uncriticised.