El-Akhar

This movie is one of the best romantic dramas and examples of political realism in the Middle East region. It discusses what is the meaning of terrorism and who is a terrorist, and who is the real terrorist. The movie shows how power can destroy the most beautiful things in the world. The movie is extremely intelligent and it has many interesting ideas. Every time one watches the movie, it is as if you are seeing it for the first time because you see additional layers of meaning in the movie.

The movie is a love story between Adam, the son of an American woman and an Egyptian man (who are married only for business reasons without love) and Hanan, a female journalist from a poor family. Adam studied human rights and terrorism. Hanan's brother is a member of a terrorist group. The movie explores how their life develops and grows after their marriage. The American woman becomes jealous on her son and doesn't want someone to take her son and wants to destroy their love story. It's a very touching love story and expresses much about the situation faced by poor Egyptians and gives the viewer lots of questions as to how people become terrorist and what leads a young guy to pursue this path.

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.

Twenty minutes after screening L'AUTRE at a film festival lately, I lost all hope it could be viewed as a serious film and began to see it for what it is- a tacky melodrama. More cliches are impossible to fit in (cyberspace, terrorism, Oedipus complexes, the works). If this is what Egyptian filmmaking is like, Mexican telenovelas are a a refined art form with nuanced acting. Worth seeing if only for the SHOCKING appalling experience of what passes off as brilliant filmmaking in North Africa. A total disgrace to the art form, and a total disgrace to Egypt, which has contributed too much to world culture to let this travesty represent the the state of its cinematic arts.

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 ❤

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.