Sheikh Jackson

Amr Salama's 2017 Egyptian film is about a young imam shaken by the news of Michael Jackson's death. Khaled lives as a strict believer, respected for his beard, his sermons and his order. On the day Jackson dies he notices he cannot cry, and that opens a past he has long suppressed: as an adolescent he idolised Jackson, he danced, he had lost his mother and took refuge in that world from his father's harshness. The film tells the two periods in parallel and handles the tension between faith and identity without mockery. The ending rests on reconciling a religious choice with a childhood. It screened in Toronto, was Egypt's entry for the Academy Awards and was attacked at home in the name of religion. Who it's for: viewers who like drama about identity and belief. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with religious questions treated personally.