I think that what makes "Sahar El Layali" so different from all the other Egyptian movies is that it is a bold attempt at criticizing and analyzing problems that are witnessed by youth in their early marital lives in Egypt and maybe in the whole world as well.
In the midst of all the thoughtless comedies appearing in Egyptian theatres every week, such a deep movie is a breath of fresh air and something which implies that Egypt can produce good movies provided that the creators ignore the usual saying of "this is what the public wants" in order to guarantee easy revenues.
The movie impresses right from the very beginning with an excellent star-packed cast comprising some of the best young actors in the Egyptian scene; Mona Zaki and her husband Ahmed Helmi (husband in real life), in addition to Hanan Turk, Ola Ghanem, Khaled abou El Naga, Fathi Abd El Wahab, Gihan Fadel and last but far from least Sherif Mounir.
My review would not include spoilers because I think everybody has to see and enjoy this movie but in brief the movie describes the inter-relations between 4 young couples and the problems that they face in either their marital lives or emotional / love relationships. This is where the movies is bold as it depicts real-life problems in outstanding realism that hits the unprepared audience who might have bought tickets to watch a comic movie like the vast majority of the movie in the scene nowadays.
The acting was superb from the whole cast but Sherif Mounir (being the most experienced actor) and Gihan Fadel shone out as the real driving forces of the movie handling the most difficult and emotionally complex roles with extreme talent.
The movie is not all drama and has its adequate sense of humor that actually adds to the experience. The use of Fayrouz's classic song "Sahar El Layali" was a brilliant idea and well integrated into the movie.
The movie was attacked, however, for its boldness as well as a couple of scenes that were considered to have sexual content. In my opinion, such scenes, if any, were essential to the plot of the movie and the movie would suffer if edited in any way. Furthermore, and due to the nature of the movie, the content and the adult dialogue, the movie's director assigned an "Adults Only" banner which was made very clear on the movies posters (which were very nicely done by the way) so such scenes would be forgiven in the light of the age restriction imposed on the movie.
In the very end, I would like to say why I wrote this review which happens to be my first on IMDB (wonderful site by the way). When a movie like this comes around, and you find some people attacking it in a rather narrow minded manner, you have to speak for its defense in the hope that more of this good stuff arrives.
Finally, this movie might be what the Egyptian movie industry needed to know that movies with plot and not only comedy can succeed. I voted a flawless 10/10 for this movie and would suggest that anyone interested in Arabic-speaking movies MUST see this movie regardless of the user rating it gets at the end.
In the midst of all the thoughtless comedies appearing in Egyptian theatres every week, such a deep movie is a breath of fresh air and something which implies that Egypt can produce good movies provided that the creators ignore the usual saying of "this is what the public wants" in order to guarantee easy revenues.
The movie impresses right from the very beginning with an excellent star-packed cast comprising some of the best young actors in the Egyptian scene; Mona Zaki and her husband Ahmed Helmi (husband in real life), in addition to Hanan Turk, Ola Ghanem, Khaled abou El Naga, Fathi Abd El Wahab, Gihan Fadel and last but far from least Sherif Mounir.
My review would not include spoilers because I think everybody has to see and enjoy this movie but in brief the movie describes the inter-relations between 4 young couples and the problems that they face in either their marital lives or emotional / love relationships. This is where the movies is bold as it depicts real-life problems in outstanding realism that hits the unprepared audience who might have bought tickets to watch a comic movie like the vast majority of the movie in the scene nowadays.
The acting was superb from the whole cast but Sherif Mounir (being the most experienced actor) and Gihan Fadel shone out as the real driving forces of the movie handling the most difficult and emotionally complex roles with extreme talent.
The movie is not all drama and has its adequate sense of humor that actually adds to the experience. The use of Fayrouz's classic song "Sahar El Layali" was a brilliant idea and well integrated into the movie.
The movie was attacked, however, for its boldness as well as a couple of scenes that were considered to have sexual content. In my opinion, such scenes, if any, were essential to the plot of the movie and the movie would suffer if edited in any way. Furthermore, and due to the nature of the movie, the content and the adult dialogue, the movie's director assigned an "Adults Only" banner which was made very clear on the movies posters (which were very nicely done by the way) so such scenes would be forgiven in the light of the age restriction imposed on the movie.
In the very end, I would like to say why I wrote this review which happens to be my first on IMDB (wonderful site by the way). When a movie like this comes around, and you find some people attacking it in a rather narrow minded manner, you have to speak for its defense in the hope that more of this good stuff arrives.
Finally, this movie might be what the Egyptian movie industry needed to know that movies with plot and not only comedy can succeed. I voted a flawless 10/10 for this movie and would suggest that anyone interested in Arabic-speaking movies MUST see this movie regardless of the user rating it gets at the end.