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Reviews
Zawgat Ragoul Mohem (1987)
A masterpiece
A masterpiece.. one my favorite khan and Zaki films. Khan being one of the pioneers of Egyptian neo-realism executed the script with style and grace.. his unusual use of jump cuts and close ups were ahead of his time. The film tells the story of Hesham a corrupt police officer who gets fired after a national investigation in the 70's cannot deal with society after being unable to exercise power on others, and his romantic wife Mona who suffers from the over controlling and manipulative relationship.
After "ahlam, hend and Kamilia" this film is definitely one of my Khan favorites. Mervat Amin, a very underrated actress and a 70's sex symbol showed great talent and was surprisingly not overshadowed by Ahmed Zaki's genius. This outstanding thriller needs to be translated and uploaded on youtube. So many Egyptian gems are hidden and not given enough attention.
Baad el mawkeaa (2012)
An attempt to document post revolution social changes
The film focuses on the lives of three characters: Reem, Mahmoud and Fatma. Reem being the upper class politically active idealist tries to help Mahmoud and Fatma, the couple from Nazlet Semman who are a suffering from the economic problems after the revolution.
I might have had some difficulty understanding the motives of the characters, specially Reem who is very complicated. Fatma's character was the most annoying, the actress' performance was very weak. Honestly i expected a lot more from Yousry Nasrallah because i couldn't get over the melodramatic scenes and the over the top acting. But i kind of understand the difficulty of making a film about revolution that is not finished yet.. must have been very confusing for the filmmakers who refused to give up on the project but their confusion and struggle was showing through the characters. I gave "After the battle" an 8 because it had one of the most poetic film endings i have ever seen.