EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC

The final installment of the “Cairo Trilogy” by the Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker – screened at the Cannes Film Festival and featuring a captivating score by Alexandre Desplat – is a stylized thriller and arguably the boldest political film of the year. In modern-day Egypt, under the authoritarian rule of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, actor George Fahmy (portrayed by the compellingly versatile Fares Fares), the country’s most renowned star and an object of public adoration, is descending from the height of a triumphant career. When the government asks him to portray el-Sisi in a propagandistic biopic, George is in no position to refuse. After all, he (self-)proclaims himself the “Pharaoh of Egyptian cinema.” The once apolitical star will gradually adopt an anti-regime consciousness, only to find himself trapped in the system and falling prey to it. A film that begins as satire and turns into a chilling political thriller, as well as a daring act of denunciation, and a sumptuous, CinemaScope, witty tribute to the art of cinema.