Back again with another film on my seemingly never ending quest to achieve true cinephile status, discovering the greats of both local and international cinema. It’s been a while since I’ve done an Egyptian film, and El Keif’s been on my list for a while.. so fuck it!
The film is about two brothers from a middle class, conservative family. Salah (played by Yehia El Fakharany) is a chemist. His brother, Gamal, (played by Mahmoud Abdel Aziz) is a mediocre wedding singer, and a junkie that mingles with the wrong crowd. To prove to him that addiction is all just a delusion and to discourage him from this path, Salah concocts a mix of hashish that doesn’t include any narcotic substances, and ends up fooling Gamal. Impressed, Gamal convinces Salah to cook up some more and sell it as an alternative to addictive drugs, to which Salah agrees due to his financial struggles. Salah’s recipe eventually garners the attention of a powerful drug lord. (Sound familiar, Vince Gilligan?)
As Breaking Bad as this all sounds, there’s more to this movie than just the drug business or simply drug addiction. It actually does an expert job at portraying addiction as this unforgiving, evil entity that comes in all kinds of forms and catches society hook, line, and sinker. There’s a scene near the beginning where Salah and Gamal are in a taxi cab, and the driver’s listening to some music with lyrics that consist of pure gibberish, who we learn was made by some new up and coming artist. Seeing Salah’s visible disgust and confusion, the driver explains that he was once just as baffled by the music, but then he grew entranced by it, and has even gone on to accept this rubbish into his life. This exact scenario is then repeated in the end with another driver and passenger, with Gamal’s music playing on the radio instead. It’s almost like this endless loop that society got stuck in, leaving people no choice but to conform.
The movie’s also quite the emotional rollercoaster. Starts off as a stoner comedy and ends up being one of the most devastating things I’ve ever watched. How exactly? Well, that’s for you to find out. I need not say more!
The OG Breaking Bad gets a 4.5/5 ⭐️
Back again with another film on my seemingly never ending quest to achieve true cinephile status, discovering the greats of both local and international cinema. It’s been a while since I’ve done an Egyptian film, and El Keif’s been on my list for a while.. so fuck it!
The film is about two brothers from a middle class, conservative family. Salah (played by Yehia El Fakharany) is a chemist. His brother, Gamal, (played by Mahmoud Abdel Aziz) is a mediocre wedding singer, and a junkie that mingles with the wrong crowd. To prove to him that addiction is all just a delusion and to discourage him from this path, Salah concocts a mix of hashish that doesn’t include any narcotic substances, and ends up fooling Gamal. Impressed, Gamal convinces Salah to cook up some more and sell it as an alternative to addictive drugs, to which Salah agrees due to his financial struggles. Salah’s recipe eventually garners the attention of a powerful drug lord. (Sound familiar, Vince Gilligan?)
As Breaking Bad as this all sounds, there’s more to this movie than just the drug business or simply drug addiction. It actually does an expert job at portraying addiction as this unforgiving, evil entity that comes in all kinds of forms and catches society hook, line, and sinker. There’s a scene near the beginning where Salah and Gamal are in a taxi cab, and the driver’s listening to some music with lyrics that consist of pure gibberish, who we learn was made by some new up and coming artist. Seeing Salah’s visible disgust and confusion, the driver explains that he was once just as baffled by the music, but then he grew entranced by it, and has even gone on to accept this rubbish into his life. This exact scenario is then repeated in the end with another driver and passenger, with Gamal’s music playing on the radio instead. It’s almost like this endless loop that society got stuck in, leaving people no choice but to conform.
The movie’s also quite the emotional rollercoaster. Starts off as a stoner comedy and ends up being one of the most devastating things I’ve ever watched. How exactly? Well, that’s for you to find out. I need not say more!
The OG Breaking Bad gets a 4.5/5 ⭐️
