alr

Chaos
(Heya Fawda )

Screening on Film
Directed by Youssef Chahine.
With Khaled Saleh, Mena Shalaby, Hala Sedky.
Egypt/France, 2007, 35mm, color, 122 min.
Arabic with English subtitles.
Print source: Connaissance du Cinema

In his last film, completed with the help of longtime collaborator Khaled Youssef, Chahine concocts a tasty melodrama, with plenty of political bite, out of a tale about a crusading public prosecutor taking on a corrupt and sadistic police chief in contemporary Cairo. Set in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Choubra, known for the diversity of its residents, Chaos reveals the area to be a powder keg thanks to social and economic conditions that deteriorate while the elite look the other way. Chahine being Chahine, the drama and political commentary is overlaid with a love triangle that ups the ante for all concerned.

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