2001
Skoot hansawwar (Silence… We’re Rolling) directed by Youssef Chahine
“A whimsical comedy with a touch of tragedy, Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s Silence…We’re Rolling features famed Tunisian singer Latifah as Malak, a pop star whose career and home life are fraught with troubles. Alfi (Ahmed Bedir), the screenwriter of what should be her next hit movie, has writer’s block, and her husband has left her for her best friend. One night she meets Lamei, a handsome young man (Ahmed Wafik) who commences to woo her, but her friends and family are all convinced he’s nothing but a charming con man out to get her money. Alfi, who also happens to be in love with Malak, conspires with her family to hatch a plot to expose Lamei’s true intentions and show Malak who her true loved ones are.”
2003
Ma’ali al Wazir (معالي الوزير)(His Excellency the Minister) directed by Samir Seif
“Ra’fat Rostom becomes a minister by mistake, since then he gets more and more powerfull everyday, and that’s when he starts having hilarious and weird nightmares about his corruption and his family.”
2004
Alexandrie… New York (Alexandria… New York) directed by Youssef Chahine
“Egyptian film director Yehia encounters his first love Ginger as he was being celebrated in New York. Back then they were 19 years old. The American Dream was the thing of the 20th century. Yehia, the boy from Alexandria, and Ginger, the American gal, were students at Pasadena Playhouse.40 years later, they are back together but the world has changed and the American Dream is no longer what it used to be.”
Bab el shams (The Gate of Sun) directed by Yousry Nasrallah
“In his adaptation of the novel by Elias Khoury, the acclaimed Egyptian director, Yousri Nasrallah chooses to remain faithful to Khoury’s narrative structure, leading to a five-hour viewing experience. A two-part film with an intermission, Bab al-Shams (Egypt, 2004, 278 min) undertakes a visual storytelling that initiates the viewer to the vertigo of the Palestinian refugee. In Nasrallah’s film, the novel’s historical and literary narrative is rendered as a spectacle of sounds and colors, bringing to life the villages of Galilee in all their folklore. The first part of the film stages the epic unfolding of the Nakba, experienced as barbarity, heroism, betrayal, and loss. With elaborate war scenes and a highly evocative score, the film seeks to re-present the drama of 1948, tracing the displacement of the Palestinian people from the villages into the Diaspora. The second half of the film re-enacts the collective collapse of the heroic ethos of the Palestinian people in their quest for home. Thoroughly poetic, the film captures the magic of these stories and celebrates their unpredictability.”
2005
El-sefara fi El-Omara (The Embassy is in the Building) directed by Amr Arafa
“Sherif is an Egyptian petroleum engineer who works in Dubai for more than 20 years. He lives an empty life full of money and women. After a lot of relations with different kinds of women, he was caught by his boss making love to his boss’s wife, so he is fired and he is forced to go back to Egypt. Back to his old apartment in Cairo, he discovers that the Israeli embassy is in the same building as he lives in, causing a lot of comic situations, and causing Sherif to begin to look around and have concern of the surrounding political situation.”
2006
Omaret yakobean (The Yacoubian Building) directed by Marwan Hamed
" Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor’s son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika’s factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone’s lips, and corruption is in their hearts. European values, both refined and worldly, provide a subtext."
2007
Heya fawda (Chaos, This Is) directed by Youssef Chahine and Khaled Youssef
“Choubra, cosmopolitan neighborhood of Cairo. Hatem, maggoty police officer, handles this neighborhood with an iron hand. Every single citizen fears and hates him. Only Nour, a young woman he lusts after, dares stand up to him. But Nour is secretly in love with Cherif, brilliant and uncorrupted deputy public prosecutor. Green with envy, Hatem comes between. He wants Nour for himself. He whipsaws her and turns her life into a nightmare. The story of a frustrated love like Choubra experiences some since the mists of time.”
El gezira (The Island) directed by Sherif Arafa
“‘El Gezira’ is a film about a community of Upper Egypt residents living in El Gezira (the Island). They have their own set of rules, ethics and traditions. But they also plant drugs and buy arms from Sudan. The officer in charge of the region turns a blind eye to these happenings, and in the beginning, the government takes no heed of the Island. At the start of the film, we witness the death of the old ‘Kabir el Gezira’ (the island’s ruler), leaving the land to his son Mansour. The first half follows Mansour as he takes control of his land and must deal with a band of other drug lords who are greedy to take control of the island. The second half of the film deals with the political conflict. It follows the government’s side of things (which finally decides to take action) at the same time as Mansour’s side, as the two react to each other’s threats and the conflict escalates.”
2009
Welad El Am (Cousins) Sherif Arafa
“Salwa, an Egyptian with a moderate approach to Islam who has been leading a typical life as a housewife, is left to question her life-long convictions, the ideas she believed in even though they weren’t the driving force of her life. She’s forced to weigh in questions about nationalism (as an Egyptian married to an Israeli) and about religion (as a Muslim married to a Jew).”
Rich Uncle Skeleton
As part of the Best Films of the Noughties: Helping us find lesser known greats Project;
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6662
I know nothing about Egyptian films from the noughties I’m afraid so I’ll just pass it over to you lot – what are the best and most important Egyptian films from the last decade?