Ibrahim Labyad

Marwan Hamed’s sophomore film was a radical departure for the director. An action melodrama starring Ahmed El Sakka – Egypt’s biggest action star of the 2000s – the film traces the ascent of a young hoodlum through Cairo’s criminal underworld.

The hoodlum’s ambitions are thwarted when he finds himself dragged into a love triangle involving a fearsome gang leader – played by the late veteran actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz in one of his most brilliantly chilling performances – and his childhood sweetheart (Hind Sabry from The Yacoubian Building). 

Adapted from an original script written by actor-turned-screenwriter Aboelhassan Abbas (the sadistic police officer from Yacoubian), Hamed’s crime saga – one of the gnarliest Arab films of the new century – demonstrates the director’s knack for blending tightly choreographed, high-octane action sequences with tempestuous romance and recurrent subplots centred on the struggle against an informal, corrupt authority. The film was criticised upon release for what many considered excessive violence and profanity, and it initially underperformed at the box office. Over time, however, its stature has grown, and it is now regarded as a bona fide cult classic that inspired a wave of gritty, working-class action films in Egypt. 

– Joseph Fahim
 

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