3 reviews
I'm actually at a loss for words. I have had this film on a hard drive for a couple of months and was waiting for the right moment to view. That came about earlier this evening.
I simultaneously wish I still had the experience to come and that I had seen it sooner. I was moved, buffeted, amused, upset, astounded in turns.
The film is a bit rough around the edges with the two stars who I assume had not done any or much acting before. And there were a couple of holes in the narrative. But that didn't matter during this wondrous odyssey through Upper Egypt.
It's a road movie, but with a real difference. Both the leads are seeking their origins and pasts. And it's not a comfy journey, it take place on a donkey cart, on foot, dodging the fares on the train, on the backs of vans and lorries.
During the trip there is hostility and meanness but it's more than outweighed by the kindness and solidarity of others, above all by the band of "freaks" as they call themselves who helped our heroes onto the final part of their journey.
I refuse to get into spoilers; the ending is perfect and cannot have been devised in any other way. What happened at the end had to happen - Beshey's father was, tragically, right.
The subtitles were in near perfect English and from my limited knowledge of Arabic were correct. There was one glitch in one sentence when two lines disappeared off the screen too swiftly for reading but that was the only timing issue.
Prepare to cry and laugh while watching.
I simultaneously wish I still had the experience to come and that I had seen it sooner. I was moved, buffeted, amused, upset, astounded in turns.
The film is a bit rough around the edges with the two stars who I assume had not done any or much acting before. And there were a couple of holes in the narrative. But that didn't matter during this wondrous odyssey through Upper Egypt.
It's a road movie, but with a real difference. Both the leads are seeking their origins and pasts. And it's not a comfy journey, it take place on a donkey cart, on foot, dodging the fares on the train, on the backs of vans and lorries.
During the trip there is hostility and meanness but it's more than outweighed by the kindness and solidarity of others, above all by the band of "freaks" as they call themselves who helped our heroes onto the final part of their journey.
I refuse to get into spoilers; the ending is perfect and cannot have been devised in any other way. What happened at the end had to happen - Beshey's father was, tragically, right.
The subtitles were in near perfect English and from my limited knowledge of Arabic were correct. There was one glitch in one sentence when two lines disappeared off the screen too swiftly for reading but that was the only timing issue.
Prepare to cry and laugh while watching.
Yomeddine probably means Judgement Day. Leprosy (known as Hansen's Disease) is curable; not inheritable; not transmitted once cured; 95% of the population has a natural immunity. The scaring & deformities make it so that many members of the last colony in Egypt, where this movie was made, prefer the security & comfort that it provides rather than leaving.
The story, using non-actors, follows our scarred Beshay & an orphaned 10 year old kind neighbor (appropriately nicknamed Obama), as they travel across Egypt by donkey cart; walking; by train; hitchhiking to locate Beshay's family. One moral in the movie is that what's important is our humanity & not material things (something a U.S. political leader has yet to learn).
- westsideschl
- Oct 11, 2019
- Permalink