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Al-Silim wal Ta'ban (Snakes and Ladders)
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Starring: Hani Salama, Hala Sheeha, Ahmed Helmy
Directed by: Tarek El-Arian
The cairolive.com rating: 3 (out of 10)
 Some would say it was only natural that the first Egyptian film about ad executives would also be the first Egyptian film to so blatantly feature product placement -- but not to this extent. Hani Salama and his friend Ahmed Helmy are hot-shot young ad executives -- whether at work or on the town, they are walking, talking advertisements for Marlboro cigarettes and Sakara beer, drunken nights at TGIFridays and the constant quest for more conquests -- preferably of the female kind. In comes Hala Sheeha, also an executive, at car giant Seat, who spends her evenings giving private Argentinean Tango lessens at her studio.
Yeah, right.
Al-Silim wal Ta'ban may be all about consumer culture and consumer values, but it's problem is that it goes too far. In purporting to be a realistic look at the sexual exploits of youth today, it puts forth characters that are mere caricatures of today's young people.
Salama is a divorcee with no time or interest in seeing his 3-year-old daughter. But we are never really allowed into his psyche, to see how he views the world. Instead, we are forced to sit through repetitive shots that highlight his "lifestyle" -- that he lives in a whacked out, low-lit, spacious modern dungeon of an apartment, is always on the mobile phone, and always on the prowl for women. But a simple thing like, say, how he feels about marriage, we don't know.
Ahmed Helmy is allowed a little more complexity. We learn that he is just looking for release from the pressures of home. As the oldest son, he is responsible for his mother and siblings -- at least it's an explanation for why he's so good at home, but bad at relationships. Because he is allowed to do more than just pose, like Salama does, we feel sympathy for him, and think he may change.
But it's Salama, of course, who is the one who has to change, and Sheeha is his catalyst. After a drawn out play of him being "sincere about love", and she not giving it up, the film's contrived, circus like ending is brought together via a volley of predictable sequences. Perhaps it was the fragile heat given off by Sheeha and Salama's characters -- they seemed, somehow, disinterested in their roles.
And that's wht the cinema had become, an audience barely interested in where this turkey was heading. A disappointment from the director who brought us the memorable Ahmed Zaki, Mahmoud Hemeida police thriller Al-Basha -- he's trying once again to make statements about modern life, but here, his medium -- advertising -- got the best of him.
Showing at:
Cosmos, Geniena, Serag, OG Maadi, Wonderland
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