Sherlemious

But does the self-awareness of an art piece, a film, make up for its imperfections? If it does, does that make the filmmakers lazy? Is it a message or some self-expression? Should it be allowed or even acclaimed? I don't know, and the thing is, I don't even know if it matters or not. But, I'll assume it doesn't matter because life is short and, hey-I'm inspired. For once, I choose not to care. For once, I choose to enjoy the moment, to live in the present and to feel the things I'm supposed to feel. Again, I don't know what's right as a rule or for a fact, but I'll take your advice, I'll open the windows, I'll watch a beautiful city as its millions of parts move, in tandem, for it doesn't lie, for it doesn't self-proclaim what it isn't, for it is real.

I write this as I have the credit scene playing in the background for the third time. Fourth, maybe, I'm not sure. The ambience feels warm, the ending scene is warm, and the whole movie is warm. But, I'm terrified. I'm terrified because I don't know if it is a reflection of the truth or a prediction. Both cases are terrible, and it terrifies me that we're falling into this bottomless pit. Is it even bottomless? Am I supposed to hope for a ladder at the bottom? I don't know, and this is what terrifies me.

I thought... I thought I wanted to be a voice for the voiceless. I always held the thought that Art was a tool and platform for such things, and the Idealist in me has always wished that it is indeed the case, that it is the truth that the power of a voice can grant tangible and not mere sentimentality of a feeling of power or the feeling of possessing the power to cause change even if just a step forward. I don't know if I'm on the winning side. I don't know if I'll ever be.

The contrast we're provided between the different cities is, in a way, scary because it makes me realise that maybe nothing is worth it.

At the time the movie was filmed, maybe what was considered real, what was considered honest and not call itself anything more than what it is, was, in fact, real. But, now, I am confident that it isn't. I'm confident that we can all see beyond the facade that was once an example of truth and it saddens me that we're never moving forward, that we're only falling and there is no bottom in sight.

Let us tell you the tale, of our disaster and ordeal, of the policy of our state.

Oh, our country! Looted, R*ped by ***** and his gangs. Ruled by the m*******, who plundered your wealth.

Freedom to all the prisoners, Freedom to ***** \.

Every time they kidnap one of us, the voice of truth only gets louder.

M******* m******* m*******, why!?

Are we at war or what???

*******, the agent, sold the *** to I*****. Down with *****. Down with the m rule.

Tomorrow the E******* people will bring the regime down.

Freedom to the prisoners.

You could replace each of those censored words with many names, with many entities and will still tell the full truth.

Beautiful on the outside, rotten on the inside. A part of me wished I could say I'm afraid to look inside to see the rot, but the truth is, it looks like I've always been on the inside haven't I?

When is it safe to say that nothing is worth saving, that it's okay, that it's ideal to run away and never look back?

I'm in awe because this tells the truth, and transparently transponds the conundrum as is, no filter. It doesn't lie to us. It doesn't give us hope. It gives us a voice which is A LOT.

The cinematography is beautiful. The editing is brilliant and the acting is on point. This was hard to find in order to watch, but it was worth it in every way and maybe that just gave it further value. Maybe, that's what art is, an experience... right? The dialogue was well-written, providing a loud voice for those who suffer, and the silence was even louder.

No, it doesn't have a 3 act structure. It probably doesn't have an orthodox structure whatsoever but it's real and it gets to break the rules. I kept on going back to older scenes while writing this review and I kept on realising I didn't even see the full extent of its beauty.

It's just real.

God save Gaza, Beirut, Khartoum, Baghdad, Damascus, Sanaa, Tripoli, and Cairo.

Signing out, a pessimistic idealist, a coward who keeps pushing forward.

What an experience. This film is one of a kind, one that is not original in any way and yet one that a wide variety of audience-I think- must watch.

I have never seen a film with such a strong first act worsen this much by the time it had reached the ending. It saddens me that the director, Marawan Hamed did not follow his instinct, and gave it what may would have stood as his own style but rather borrowed techniques from well known directors like Christopher Nolan.

It was obvious the multiple timed-situations occurring parallel to one another were not of his own and the problem with that, Nolan himself struggles with his very own signature technique. It's risky and it would have NOT added that much to the experience of the film, especially not a 3 hour one. It was cliche and it tremendously ruined the hook it has worked so hard on building scene upon the other.

One more fatal mistake was the non-linear storytelling. I am usually not a fan of stories such as this one, the ones like 'once upon a time' and then they throw in multiple stories with huge timegaps inbetween but this had actually changed my mind at around the 80 minute mark. Little did I know, they messed it up, and when I say messed it up, I mean like a complete turnover to something really bad.

It was all over the place with the narrator explaining what has happened over the timegaps, it lost its consistency and I was genuinely lost over what was happening at the moment. It was no longer a story just scenes loosely connected together. It was very well put together and yet you can tell it was very disconnected.

All of this does not disprove the fact that the first half had me on the edge of my seat, I have been tearing up and I could sense the tension in the theatre. It was a beautifully well put together cinematic experience in terms of everything. The soundtracks were very immersive, the cinematography was pretty okay, it was not methodically original but I could tell they were really trying their best.

I was so impressed to the extent I had planned to take notes throughout the movie and half an hour in I decided I was not going to take out either my phone or notebook and will just enjoy the movie for what it is. Towards the end of the movie, and I kid you not, I burst out laughing in the middle of the theater over what was supposed to make me emotional for the cliche, cheesy and the predictable ending that it was.

The acting was on point although I don't think any of them was really taken out of their comfort zone to begin with. It's like each of them follows their own arc in every single movie and it makes the story more predictable. I feel like it wouldn't be a bad idea to take someone out of their comfort zone to come up with something original. Different risks will have to be taken if the duo who made these several movie will want to achieve something great in the future. They will have to work on the psychological aspects of the characters if they ever want to go further. Many of the characters' actions in the last act did not make sense; I especially understand that characters can be contradictory and can carry out unexplainable actions but for them to do, this possibility has to be well developed to begin with. People can change whatever beliefs they've had for 50 years but we have to be shown that on the screen. We can't just deduce that. Unexpectedness has to be well developed for it to be as shocking as the filmmakers intend it to be.

In the end, this was in no way boring, it was a well out together film, inconsistent in pacing having many well directed action scenes throughout. It addresses classism, rural misogyny and some more social issues although not directly. It made me feel like I belonged to the Egyptians, it made me hold hatred I never knew I could contain towards the Brits-Well, at least in the first half of it- and it was exactly the experience I was looking for.

It's not a masterpiece but it's definitely worth the watch.