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Egypt: Black Honey
Movie Poster
Egypt is like black honey — sweet but black. This is what the title of the recent Egyptian movie Asal Eswed(black honey in English) tries to say. The main song of the movie also states the same fact: "Egypt, the country where you find anything and its contradiction."
The warmth, familiarity, and sense of humor of Egyptian people are the sweet side; the bitter life, extremely poor conditions they live in, and the negative behaviors that resulted from those poor conditions are the black side.
The film itself is an example of this paradoxical Egyptian condition: The sweet side is the comic nature and environment of the movie; the black side is the different aspects that the film displays of how cheap the Egyptian citizen has become in his own country, as opposed to an American or European visitor.
Storyline
The main character, Masry (meaning Egyptian in English — the name is symbolic), is an Egyptian who had been living in the US for 20 years and decides to return and settle in his homeland. On his return, he chooses to use his Egyptian passport and not the American one, which he leaves in the US thinking that it would be of no use and that it is more logical to use the Egyptian passport in Egypt.
Ironically, the Egyptian passport, his Egyptian nationality, and his name, Masry, are what bring him all the troubles that he goes through from his very first moment in Egypt.
The only thing that eases his pains is the warmth that he finds in his neighbors — a symbol of the typical Egyptian family, which, despite all its sufferings from poverty, unemployment, poor education, etc., still has not lost the warmth and sense of family.
Meaningful Comedy
Asal Eswed is the kind of comedy that I respect: It is a comedy for a cause. Besides, it is one that makes you laugh for a real situation, not for some silly bodily and verbal acts or sexual jokes as is the case with most of the Arab cinema nowadays.
This has normally been the style
Movie Poster
Egypt is like black honey — sweet but black. This is what the title of the recent Egyptian movie Asal Eswed(black honey in English) tries to say. The main song of the movie also states the same fact: "Egypt, the country where you find anything and its contradiction."
The warmth, familiarity, and sense of humor of Egyptian people are the sweet side; the bitter life, extremely poor conditions they live in, and the negative behaviors that resulted from those poor conditions are the black side.
The film itself is an example of this paradoxical Egyptian condition: The sweet side is the comic nature and environment of the movie; the black side is the different aspects that the film displays of how cheap the Egyptian citizen has become in his own country, as opposed to an American or European visitor.
Storyline
The main character, Masry (meaning Egyptian in English — the name is symbolic), is an Egyptian who had been living in the US for 20 years and decides to return and settle in his homeland. On his return, he chooses to use his Egyptian passport and not the American one, which he leaves in the US thinking that it would be of no use and that it is more logical to use the Egyptian passport in Egypt.
Ironically, the Egyptian passport, his Egyptian nationality, and his name, Masry, are what bring him all the troubles that he goes through from his very first moment in Egypt.
The only thing that eases his pains is the warmth that he finds in his neighbors — a symbol of the typical Egyptian family, which, despite all its sufferings from poverty, unemployment, poor education, etc., still has not lost the warmth and sense of family.
Meaningful Comedy
Asal Eswed is the kind of comedy that I respect: It is a comedy for a cause. Besides, it is one that makes you laugh for a real situation, not for some silly bodily and verbal acts or sexual jokes as is the case with most of the Arab cinema nowadays.
This has normally been the style