GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★ 
Directed by: Tarik Saleh
Written by: Tarik Saleh
Produced by: Kristina Åberg and Fredrik Zander
Starring: Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram J. Khoury, Sherwan Haji, Mehdi Dehbi.
WINNER – BEST SCREENPLAY
Cannes Film Festival 2022
‘Don’t forget where you’re from.’
When Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) is granted a scholarship to study at the Al-Azhar in Cairo, he’s worried his father won’t approve.
But his father, a fisherman who is a strict disciplinarian, says not even a father can stand in the way of God’s will.
Al-Azhar is the centre of power in Sunni Islam, and it is here that Adam arrives to open his world to the teachings of the Qur’an. Instead the fisherman’s son becomes the centre of a power struggle between the State and religious leaders when the Grand Imam passes away.
Director and writer Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)) states, ‘One of the Egyptian revolutions, the one that brought Field Marshal Sisi to power, was seen as a military coup, although it was actually supported by the people. Once he became President, Sisi, who has ruled Egypt for eight years, decided to confront the Al-Azhar institution directly. His first decision was to visit the University on the Prophet’s birthday. His speech said in essence: “Either you contribute to the problem or you contribute to the solution. We need to fight terrorism, which you have not done so far. There are even books in your institution that promote terrorism and this must stop.”’
What surprised Tarik Saleh as he was writing the script for, Conspiracy in Cairo is that what he had written started to happen in reality.
The conflict between state and religion is the driving narrative of the film when the State decides it will do anything in their power for the replacement of the Grand Imam to be on the side of the president.
Enter State Security Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares).
At the behest of his boss, Ibrahim uses the students as informants within the Al-Azhar, known as Angels, to pass back information to influence the decision making in favour of the State’s priorities.
Echoing the implied statement of President Sisi in real-life Egypt, “I am the new leader of Egypt, you had better fall in line”.
And the then Grand Imam, Sheikh el-Tayeb: “I am only the Grand Imam, my only privilege is to give recommendations from the Qur’an. You, Sissi, make the law and I do not interfere with that.” The President wanted the Qur’an to support his proposed laws. The Grand Imam replied that he could not because it is impossible to change the Qur’an.”
What we see in the film is how Adam, once recruited as an Angel, navigates the power struggle while staying hidden from those he’s informing on and also keeping alive by passing information to State Security that, as his predecessor and fellow student, Zizo (Mehdi Dehbi) found out – being a loose end is just as dangerous.
Weaved through-out the delicate yet deadly politics are the teachings of the Qur’an, where, ‘right is right, sin is sin. God will guide you.’
It’s a quietly menacing film about ‘books that scare tyrants and kings,’ and scholars who quote the words of the Qur’an to find their way to a Truth.
This is a political intrigue set in the modern-day world of Islam in Egypt so the tone is unique as the familiar politics of State seek to control the power of religion, where Adam has to decide if the obstacles put in front of him come from God, or fate or man.
‘This life is but a game.’
It’s a struggle, finding that balance of power between, ‘Two Pharaoh’s in the land,’ because one false step detected by the people of Egypt could very likely lead to civil war.
Conspiracy in Cairo is an absorbing story (there’s a reason the film won Best Screenplay at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival), quietly told, from the cold but honest work of a fisherman working from a small boat on the sea, to panning to a flock of birds drifting between the spires of the Al-Azhar, to the weave of Brothers snaking their way to find and punish any against them.
Thought-provoking, intriguing with moments of beauty – this is a balanced film that gets you thinking.