The Blue Elephant 2

Marwan Hamed's film is the second instalment of a series adapted from Ahmed Mourad's novels. Karim Abdel Aziz plays the psychiatrist Yehia, who returns to the Abbasiya hospital years after the events of the first film and encounters a new patient, played by Nelly Karim, who recalls someone from his past. Hend Sabry and Shereen Reda are also in the cast. The film demonstrates how far Egyptian genre production had come: long hallucination sequences, heavy use of visual effects, and a structure that keeps shuttling between horror and psychological thriller. That scale is unusual in Egypt, and audiences responded. Its commercial result was historic. From its release on 25 July 2019 it became the first Egyptian film to pass one hundred million Egyptian pounds, finishing at around a hundred and four and a half million and standing as the highest-earning production in the country's history. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy Arab genre cinema and psychological horror. Who it is not for: anyone who has not seen the first film, or who will find the extended hallucination sequences wearing.