Cairo Conspiracy
(Originally released as Boy from Heaven)
2022, Tarik Saleh, Sweden/France/Finland/Denmark
| Director: Tarik Saleh Producers: Ali Akdeniz, Fredrik Zander Screenplay: Tarik Saleh Cinematography: Pierre Aïm Editior: Theis Schmidt Music: Krister Linder | Tawfeek Barhom (Adam) Fares Fares (Colonel Ibrahim) Mohammad Bakri (General Al Sakran) Makram Khoury (Blind Sheikh Negm) Mehdi Dehbi (Zizo) Moe Ayoub (Suhby) |
Rating: M Violence Runtime: 121 minutes
Winning the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2022, Cairo Conspiracy is a political thriller of espionage, spies and danger, set within the walls of the elite Al-Azhar university, the centre of Sunni Islam.
Adam is a young man living in a small fishing village with his father. A good student, the local imam puts him forward for a scholarship to Al-Azhar. Soon after he arrives, Adam becomes embroiled in various plots for control of the university, its theology, and even Cairo and Egypt itself. What does he stand for and who can he trust?
Cairo Conspiracy brings the power and appeal of the spy thriller to this unique cultural context. It feels authentic (despite being shot in Turkey due to director Tarik Saleh not being welcome in Egypt).
It’s a gripping, paranoid experience that we look forward to sharing with members.
“Saleh was inspired by Umberto Eco’s novel and later movie The Name of the Rose, in which he smuggled philosophic questions about power and religion into a medieval whodunit. Cairo Conspiracy tackles similar subjects from a Muslim angle, but in the guise of a John Le Carre spy thriller.” – Simon Morris, RNZ