While investigating the murder of a beautiful singer, Detective Naredin becomes enmeshed in a game played out at the highest levels of Egyptian politics. Neither old nor new alliances can be trusted, and as the 2011 revolution approaches, Cairo is becoming more and more dangerous. The movie, which betrays a predilection for the noir tradition, won at Sundance.
Set against the backdrop of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, this thriller won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance. As the streets of Cairo start to seethe and the regime’s elites struggle to hold on to power, Detective Naredin is called in to investigate the murder of a beautiful singer. In the course of the investigation, he becomes ever more entangled in a murky game played at the highest levels of Egyptian politics, he can no longer trust old or new alliances, and he finds himself increasingly alone on his quest. Tarik Saleh’s movie reconstructs revolutionary Cairo, at once a lively and suffocating place. It’s the chaos of the apocalypse and the hero is trying to do the right thing: get justice for the murder victim even if it costs him his life. The picture draws on the film noir tradition while also recalling the revolutionary ferment and the attendant political commentary. The director’s long-time collaborator, charismatic Fares Fares, portrays the dogged detective. Exterior locations were shot in Casablanca.
Vít Kořínek
109 min / Color, DCP
Director Tarik Saleh
/ Screenplay Tarik Saleh
/ Dir. of Photography Pierre Aim
/ Music Krister Linder
/ Editor Theis Schmidt
/ Art Director Roger Rosenberg
/ Producer Kristina Åberg
/ Production Atmo
/ Coproduction ostlicht filmproduktion, Final Cut for Real, Film i Väst, Nordsvensk Filmunderhållning, Sveriges Television, Chimney, Scanbox, Copenhagen Film Fund
/ Cast Fares Fares, Mari Malek, Yaser Maher
/ Sales The Match Factory
/ Contact Swedish Film Institute
Tarik Saleh (b. 1972, Stockholm) is a screenwriter, director, and producer. At the end of the 1980s he entered the history of Swedish culture as a top graffiti artist. He created the documentary magazine Alive in Cairo, Egypt 1995, following this up with the seminal Swedish underground magazine Atlas. In 2001 he co-directed the provocative documentary Sacrificio – Who Betrayed Che Guevara? In 2009 he finished the animated feature Metropia (starring Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier), which premiere opened the Settimana della critica at Venice and then toured over 65 festivals. His 2011 video for the Lykke Li song “I Follow Rivers” has received over 63 million views on YouTube. 2014 saw the premiere of his crime thriller Tommy. He is a cofounder of Atmo productions.
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