Cairo Conspiracy

In 1968, Michael Anderson reflected in The Shoes of the Fisherman on the Cold War politics of his days through the prism of the secret assembly ritual of a papal conclave. With Boy from Heaven, Swedish filmmaker Tarik Saleh, known to audiences for The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), portrays a similar narrative for our time, albeit in the guise of another nail-bitingly dense and tense conspiracy thriller.

The film centres on the election of a new grand imam through the Supreme Council of Scholars congregating at Al-Azhar University, one of the world’s hubs of Islamic knowledge. Though the grand imam holds no political powers as such, he can influence governmental decisions through his announcements and rulings – so much so that these elections need to be controlled by the State’s security services. But for whose benefit exactly?

When Colonel Ibrahim sends Adam, a novice on campus, out there to be his eyes and ears and, if necessary, his hands, we are left questioning: Which side and which faction is he really working for? Who does a functionary and survivor of various governments, regimes and coups work for when the chips are down? Similar questions could be asked about rookie Adam who may be less innocent than he appears.

– Olaf Möller