"Curfew".. Film Depicts Egypt Needs

Egyptian Amir Ramses' "Curfew" attracts the eyes of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) audience. Most of the film's screening events were sold out.

Therefore, it depicts extraordinary human issues and touches upon the sensitive mother-daughter relationship.

The film revolves around Faten, Elham Shahin, who got out the prison after a 20-year-old sentence. She met her daughter Laila, Amina Khalil, for the first time in 17 years.

Faten needs to spend 12 hours at her daughter's home as there is a curfew in Egypt due to anarchy. Through these 12 hours, the audience can trace the unstable relationship between Laila and Faten.

Many scenes depict strong emotions, for example Laila never utters the word "mom" and forces her daughter Donia to not call Faten "a grandmother". Laila's feelings of disturbance and boredom are deeply touched in her dialogues.

The main strife between both characters is represented in the reason for Faten's crime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOcyWEHt_R0

Through the film, the audience has the reason for this crime; Faten killed her husband because she loves another man, Yehia.

Combining the photos of Laila in her childhood and her daughter Donia images gives the audience sharing motherhood's feelings and mutual experience.

"Curfew" succeeds in giving the audience a nice realistic film experience the audience needs. There are very vivid home details in the film such as family dinner, making tea, and sharing housework together.

So, the film gets the real middle-class life in Egypt back to the screen once again. However, the dialogue may need to go deeper into the psychological sides of Laila who is in strife all the time.

The performance of the Elham Shahin and Kamel El Basha was really emotional and catchy. El Basha's character is somehow one of the strongest performed roles in the film.

Furthermore, Laila's character represents the struggles of a middle-class Egyptian woman in work, home, and husband.

One of the concepts that are discussed is incest. But, the film touches upon it in a good way without harming the feelings of the audience.

To sum up, the film is a nice family experience to watch. It gets the concept of family cinema time back.

"Curfew" is one of the CIFF International Competition participants. It will be displayed at cinemas starting from 15 December.