Our take
When he’s accepted into the prestigious Islamic university Al-Azhar, fisherman’s son Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) gets an eye-opening education — but not the kind he expected. A place associated with notions of purity is imagined as a hotbed of hypocrisy and corruption here, as naive young Adam finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a state plot to seize control of Al-Azhar (because, as one government official puts it, “We can’t accept having two pharaohs in the land”). Cairo Conspiracy’s intricate plot confronts monsters in government and strips away religious leaders’ veneer of divinity as a reminder that they’re merely fallible men. What’s more, the film grapples with the knotty mess of politics raging inside the institution’s walls in such a way that even its palatial courtyard feels claustrophobic. Rife with paranoia and subterfuge, Cairo Conspiracy feels utterly unique thanks to this skillful transposing of the shadowy machinations of courtly intrigue dramas and ’70s paranoid thrillers into a very contemporary Egyptian setting.
What it won
Cannes
1 win
César Awards
1 nom
The story
A fisherman's son is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival, the university’s highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, dies and the young student becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt's religious and political elite.
Elsewhere
"Its lapses in storytelling mechanics [are] ignored easily enough for Barhom and Fares’ flinty-eyed performances."
— Charles Bramesco
When the Grand Imam dies, a fresh-faced student at a highly esteemed Islamic university becomes a pawn in the Egyptian government’s battle to exert control over the institution.
The film’s unique setting isn’t just for show; it’s at the philosophical center of Cairo Conspiracy’s interrogation of religious hypocrisy and authoritarian state corruption. Writer-director Tarek Saleh weaves a complex web of interests in his portrait of the institution, one that feels far more nuanced and considered than many Western depictions of the Arab and Islamic worlds — thoughtfulness that, like its never-before-seen setting, feels rare.
Life as a village fisherman suddenly doesn’t look so bad after all!
Who picked it
Farah Cheded is a UK-based curator at A Good Movie to Watch and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved freelance critic whose work has been published at outlets including The Playlist, Paste Magazine, and Film School Rejects. She lives in fear of the day she runs out of 'Columbo' episodes to watch.
