El-Akhar

Every time one watches the movie, it is as if you are seeing it for the first time because It's a very touching love story between Adam"the son of an American woman "and Hanan, a female journalist from a poor family.The story was great, the acting was great , the music was amazing and youssef chahine was great .Deserves more than 10. Love it. Adam and hanan ❤

Don't be fooled by appearances: the fact that this is an exotic entry from Egypt doesn't shield the fact that it's just a boy-meets-girl love story given heavier trappings. Adam is the son of a wealthy Egyptian-American family who is studying at UCLA and returns home for a brief vacation. Upon his arrival he meets beautiful reporter Hanane, with whom he begins an intense love affair, and eventually they marry. Trouble arises when Hanane' s journalistic interests lead her to the corrupt business affairs of Adam's parents, who are interested in building an American tourist compound that would allow Americans further control of Egypt's tourist industry, and make them a whole lot richer. The climactic ending of the film is the tragic result of the adults' selfish greed which manifests itself on their children. Not really inspiring in any way, the film does feature some colourful musical numbers and wry moments. Nabila Ebeid is excellent as Adam's hard-driven mother.

L'Autre (Al Akhar as we say it in Arabic) succeeded in attracting more people who were never big fans of Chahine's previous movies. But on the other hand, the majority of Chahine's fans didn't like the movie, or at least they said:"May be it is a good movie, but not Chahine's", and I am one of them. The characters in the movie are not deeply described, symbols used in each character are most of the times superficial. Fans of Chahine used to watch his movies to spend 2 hours of deep thinking and analysis, not only of the artistic way and the impressive mise-en-scene of Chahine - which were very good in l'Autre also - but also for the revolutionary ideas and the "Deep Diving" he used to make in his characters and the strong contradictions inside one character as well as between different characters. L'Autre was Me versus The Other, but this Me was not surely Me, and the other was too much the Other. And to understand this, just compare this Other with Chahine's Others in Salaadin 1956,and Adieu Bonaparte 1984. I was never a fan of Nabila Ebeid, but I have to admit she played a very good role. Mahmoud Hemeida was very good in a role that did not show most of his strong capabilities. Hani Salama made big progress from EL Massir.

I could not figure out what Yousif Shamine meant by the name of the movie "The Other"? I understood what the movie was about and I can relate it to life in general in the 2000s. I makes you wonder sometimes if people are really that far out of their actions, as if they do not see the effect of their actions on others. It is a tragic ending, but very real. A very good romance between a prince and a unsubdued girl, so it is for a general public. "Le Destin" (1997) was better since it was more historical and the songs were really part of the film. But "L'autre" includes also a fair good critics of terrorism (in Algeria and in Egypt). So, if you've never seen a Chahine's film, see this one, before "Le Destin" and long for the next one.

To the pretentious reviewer who uses 'melodrama' as an insult: What do you know about Egyptian film? Or Arab culture for that matter? If you knew something, you would have realized that any film that begins with a cameo from Edward Said must be somewhat worthwhile (Or at least play with some interesting ideas). Yes, this movie is firmly situated within the romantic-melodramatic genre common in Egyptian cinema. Cinema is at its root a popular entertainment, and many of the greatest masterpieces of American cinema (which most world cinemas have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to emulate since the 30's) were produced in a similar context. What is 'Casablanca' if not a melodrama? Egyptian cinema likewise operates within the framework of melodrama, and utilizes these conventions to tell stories which have a deeper meaning. Watch 'Du'at al-Karawan,' 'la anam,' 'sigara wa ka's', etc... and tell me that's not art. Youssef Chahine has experimented with auteur-style film-making (Iskandriyah leih?) but he also -like Barakat and the best of the Egyptian directors before him, knows how to exploit the narrative tropes of the melodrama genre to create art. So leave your film-festival snobbery at the door and enjoy. 'Al-Akhar' is not Chahine's best film (in my opinion, that's Bab al-Hadid) but it is a well-told story which also takes a frank look at Egyptian society and the complex relationship between the West and the Arab world.