Menawara Be Ahlaha

An absolutely horrible show. Every little detail in this show is beyond terrible. I have no idea how anyone could think something that bad deserves to be made.

If i was asked to describe this tv show in one word i would say "out of context" nothing, absolutely nothing here align with any historical/cultural context in this spacetime zone of the universe. This is not how the darkest mind of an egyptian perpetrator work. I bet the whole cast didn't grasp any of the ideas behind the show and the reason is there are none, i refuse to call a random set of scenes an Idea and this show was a sum of unformulated thoughts, the antonym of ideas. From the first episode i was able to tell that this is a collage of various foreign tv shows, movies and maybe anime as well, only problem with this metaphor is the artistic nature of a collage which unfortunately does not exist here,

Note: i wrote this review two episode away from the end, and honestly i don't think i will be seeing the rest of it, not only i have zero curiosity left but also this is the only way to payback the insult to the director/author whom their names shall be buried with the original copy of the show.

Most Egyptian television dramas treat Cairo as backdrop; Menawara B Ahlaha makes the city a coconspirator. From the first shot a sodium streetlamp dissolving into a bruise blue alley director Yousry Nasrallah and cinematographer Sofian El Fani create an urban dream logic that wavers between the tangible and the hallucinatory. The oppressive palette of gold flecks and sickly reds externalises mood, recalling Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Polanski's The Ninth Gate, and Marwan Hamed's The Originals while remaining unmistakably Cairene.

Menawara B Ahlaha may be the most uncompromising Arab series of the decade not for shock value, but for trusting viewers with dense ambiguity and moral darkness. Whether the region will allow equally daring successors is unclear. For now, Nasrallah's occult noir tapestry stands alone, glowing-dangerously and brilliantly with its own unholy light.