In its world premiere at the 46th Cairo International Film Festival, Yasser Shafei’s Complaint No. 713317 emerged as one of the most quietly compelling works in the Arab Cinema Horizons Competition.
Inspired by a real incident the director himself experienced, the film turns a seemingly mundane inconvenience into a layered, emotionally resonant portrait of retirement, routine, and the everyday frustrations of life in contemporary Egypt.
Speaking after the screening, Shafei revealed that the title itself grew out of his own struggle with an unresolved complaint bearing the number “71,”a case he has symbolically extended into “713317” to reflect the repetition, stagnation, and circularity that define bureaucratic experience.
That sense of endless looping runs through every frame of this 80-minute Egyptian drama.
The story follows Magdy and Sama, a retired couple in their sixties living a peaceful life in their old Maadi apartment until their refrigerator breaks down.
What begins as a minor household issue becomes a spiraling battle with a shady maintenance company, triggering a chain of crises that gradually expose deeper fractures in the couple’s relationship.
As the refrigerator’s condition worsens, it becomes more than a malfunctioning appliance: it mirrors the emotional erosion, unspoken resentments, and buried loneliness that have quietly accumulated over years of shared routine.
The film positions the fridge itself as an unblinking witness in the kitchen, observing arguments, silences, compromises, and dreams.
Its presence forms an unconventional but effective narrative device, grounding the film’s symbolism without heavy-handedness.
Shafei’s script leans into realism, capturing textures of Egyptian domestic life with gentle humor and sharp observational detail.
The delicate camera movement, often gliding softly into the couple’s private moments, creates an intimate aesthetic that magnifies the small gestures and tensions shaping their daily existence.
The film also touches on the psychological challenges many retirees face: disorientation after decades of structured work, the struggle to renegotiate shared space, and the slow, difficult process of rebuilding identity outside the professional sphere.
These themes allow the narrative to transcend the comedic premise and delve into emotional territory that is both universal and distinctly Egyptian.
Sherine delivers a remarkable performance as Sama, the patient, enduring Egyptian wife who holds her household together with quiet resilience.
She conveys frustration, tenderness, and vulnerability with understated nuance.
Opposite her, Mahmoud Hemida offers one of his most natural and captivating performances in recent years.
His portrayal of Magdy is both humorous and heartbreaking, capturing the stubbornness, pride, and confusion of a man suddenly confronted with his own
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