Power always finds the best ways to perpetuate itself. But the fact that they are the best for him does not mean at all that they are beneficial to those subjected to him. For religion and politics to intertwine so that their combined forces keep you on top and always in control is just natural self-preservation behavior. Not for this reason, because it is natural, it ceases to be pernicious.
Each region explores these mechanisms of the powers so that domination and the status quo prevail, maintaining certain common characteristics even if the name of the religion changes. That is why a film like ‘Conspiracy in Cairo‘ result so digestible and easy to understand even if we don’t have the slightest idea how Egyptian politics works.
cornered by power
The director and screenwriter Tarik Saleh returns to Sweden once again to denounce these ties that are made in the highest spheres behind the backs of citizens. A European co-production that counts in the key of fast-paced spy thriller as well as thorough, entering fully into the sewers of Egypt with an intriguing story as well as emotionally complex that was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival last year in the screenplay category.
The film centers on Adam, a son of a fishing family in a modest Egyptian town. He seeks to help his family, which is in a delicate financial situation, but is selected to attend the prestigious Al-Azhar University, located in Cairo. This institution, in addition to giving you access to an immense amount of knowledge and study about the faith, is also the nerve center of Sunni Islam powerwho is convulsed after the sudden death of the Grand Imam.
In the midst of discussions about who should be his successor, a colleague of Adam’s is murdered in the middle of the night and he witnesses it. He will soon find out, when approached by Colonel Ibrahim (played by a regular collaborator of Saleh as he is Fares Fares), that his partner was an informant for the Cairo police, and should take his place to discover the conspiracies that are taking place in the sacred temple to influence the religious power and, consequently, the population.
‘Cairo conspiracy’: anger and frustration
With intrigue and murder intertwined with religious power, it’s easy to think of this story as a Muslim equivalent to ‘The Name of the Rose’. The execution, though, comes pretty close to both John Le Carré’s complex moral spy tales and Michael Mann’s tense and atmospheric thriller. ‘The dilemma’ comes to mind in its way of speaking of infiltrators, of the never-ending ramifications for the system that is trying to combat, and of the emotional exhaustion experienced during the process.
There are also small mixtures of genres that give a greater substance to the story. Adam’s character is also experiencing his own film growing up as a teenager, a “coming of age” plagued by doubts about his faith and his disappointments with the institution in which he finds himself, which has a rather devastating ending. Saleh uses this part of the story well to emotionally selling his fierce criticism of the system of his country.
As it happened with the also notable ‘Confidential Cairo’, we find some very western references that make everything accessible to us as an audience, although at the same time they make it a bit conventional. Not for this reason it ceases to be told with great force, charged with rage and frustration at the impunity of power to commit atrocious acts. Just for that reason it is a very remarkable movie.
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