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A look at this year's eid movies
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None of this year's eid films feature any of the mega-stars who have monopolised the feast's screen for years. That means no "gifts" from Adel Imam or Nadia El-Guindi this time around. In fact, most of this year's films feature newcomers; bright young stars and even nobodies.
Is that a good thing? The box office will certainly let us know.
Here's a quick summary of this year's six Egyptian eid films and where they're playing:
Lay Khalitni Ahibak (Why'd You Make Me Love You?)
Director Sandra Nashaat's second effort after the sleeper hit Mabrouk wa Bulbul is about two girls vying for the same guy. Basically, this is a romantic comedy aimed at teenagers and starring some of their favourite young faces: Karim Abdel-Aziz, Mona Zaki, Hala Shiha, and Ahmed Helmi. The producers are clearly going for the friendly, playful approach with billboards featuring a big red heart with the film's title in funky lettering, and only the participants' first names. Its story line takes more than hints from the Hollywood blockbuster My Best Friend's Wedding, starring Julia Roberts.
Geneina, Nasr City, 2630744
Renaissance, Nasr City, 4012326
Serag, Nasr City, 4060070
Al-Cash Mashi (Cash Works)
Filmed a full seven years ago, this musical comedy was originally called Al-Mudifat Al-Thalatha (The Three Air Hostesses) until the song "Al-Cashi Mashi" was recently added. The film was actually released in cinemas without director Tareq El-Nahri even being informed. Starring Nermine El-Fiqi, Rania Youssef and Wahid Seif.
Al-Sharq, Sayeda Zeinab, 3649311
Firqat Banat Wa Bass (Just an All-Girls Band)
Yet another remake of the Marilyn Monroe classic Some Like It Hot, this time starring young guns Hani Ramzi and Maged El-Masri in the cross-dressing roles made famous by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Newcomer Amira Fathi (the veiled neighbourly love interest in Saidi fil Gamaa Al-Amrikiya) here plays Monroe's character. Director Sherif Shaaban has made a career out of this sort of Egyptianisation of Western films, one of his previous efforts being the highly popular Tata wa Rika wa Kazem Bey, which was lifted straight from the Hollywood film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Geneina, Nasr City, 2630744
Renaissance, Nasr City, 4012326
Serag, Nasr City, 4060070
Al-Agenda Al-Hamra (The Red Notebook)
TV presenter Tareq Allam of Kalam min Dahab (Words of Gold) fame has decided to give cinema another try after the critical failure and modest box office success of his first foray onto the big screen in the spy thriller Al-Kafeer. This time, he plays a doctor who discovers that one of his relatives (Ezzat Abu Ouf) has AIDS. The bad news inspires him to search for the woman who gave Ouf the disease, a quest that leads him into an underworld of urfi (unregistered) marriage and prostitution. He uncovers a ring of Israeli women posing as tourists, but actually attempting to infect as many Egyptian men as possible with AIDS. Unless Allam and his co-stars can pull off really strong performances, this LE1.5 million production sounds like a waste of time.
Geneina, Nasr City, 2630744
Renaissance, Nasr City, 4012326
Serag, Nasr City, 4060070
Souq Al-Mut'a (Pleasure Market)
Scriptwriter Wahid Hamid and director Samir Seif were the team that brought us Ramadan's controversial smash hit Awan Al-Ward (Flowers Bloom). Here, Hamid and Seif tell the story of a man (Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz) who has been wrongly incarcerated. When he's released 15 years later, those behind the set-up decide to make it up to him by plying him with money, girls and a lucrative business venture -- all of which Abdel-Aziz discovers he could just as easily do without. The film was first shown at the Cairo International Film Festival two years ago. At the time, it was said to contain some highly risqué scenes featuring co-star Ilham Shahine. Apparently, those scenes have been left in their entirety for this general release.
Geneina, Nasr City, 2630744
Renaissance, Nasr City, 4012326
Serag, Nasr City, 4060070
Al-Warda Al-Hamra (The Red Rose)
Youssra and Ahmed Ramzi star in Inas El-Degheidi's latest effort. Both Ramzi and Youssra are pulling double whammies on us, so soon after their attention-grabbing performances on television serials this Ramadan. Here they play the young starlet and her rich, old geezer husband. Predictably enough, the starlet gets sick of the old geezer and goes back to her (young) first flame (Mustafa Fahmi). The old geezer (an arms dealer) then plots his revenge. Those who couldn't get enough of Youssra in a bathing suit frolicking on the beach in Hurghada will get plenty more of the same here.
Renaissance, Nasr City, 4012326
Serag, Nasr City, 4060070
The Box Office
The opening weekend box office results for this eid's crop of Egyptian films have been released. The numbers are pretty healthy, especially for Lay Khalitni Ahibak, which came out on top with LE630,000, followed by Souq El-Mota' at LE378,000, and Firqat Banat Wa Bass at LE345,000. Al-Warda Al-Hamra pulled in LE238,000, and Al-Agenda Al-Hamra LE111,000. Al-Cash Mashy did LE82,000 worth of business on only 8 screens.
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