Cairo Conspiracy (Walad min al-Janna)

There’s always been a rich seam of filmmaking from the middle east and just at this moment there’s a purple patch of challenging films that are telling good stories and looking to challenge the orthodox.

When Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) is offered a place to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, for the son of a fisherman it’s an honour and privilege for him and the village.

At first there’s the usual nerves and there’s a pecking order, as well as more sinister forces at work. These all come into focus and place when the Grand Imam dies unleashing a power struggle for a successor. The election pits the philosophies of the government and university; the former to ensure state compliance, the latter vigorously wanting to preserve its teaching independence.

Adam having witnessed a fellow student’s murder is soon contacted by the state and forced to take his place and report on the university’s teachings and on potential subversion from within. This gets him tangled up with various societies and Imams, with their own secrets and leanings that would be useful for his handler but challenge his own principles.

Writer and director Tarik Saleh has woven a complex, compelling film that has conspiracies within conspiracies as the state and religious authorities entwine for political and religious influence. The power struggle that ensues with players in the state vying for power while at they look to keep the university in its place. The university at the same time desperate to keep its independence from the state and to teach.

It’s very wordy and tightly written, mainly driven by plot. There’s minimal characterisation rather there are circumstances that let the viewer build a picture. As in Adam’s handler within the state machinery Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares) who may appear to be all powerful but whose influence within the state security operation is in decline, and needs this operation to go well.

However the main thrust of Cairo Conspiracy is what appears to be endemic corruption within the state and the clerics each vying for power in their own terms. It’s a state of paranoia with huge issues at stake with neither trusting the other.

There are tracts of philosophical teaching that lend the film an academic air, countered by the nefarious operations of the state security. If at times it seems far-fetched it does ring plausible in a country that has massive central political power and that, if not held to account, is at least partially constrained by religious leaders.

The players are all very good and if at times there’s a feeling that Adam could push back a bit on Ibrahim, there comes an incident that vividly demonstrates the power of the establishment and the fear it proliferates through the country.

Cairo Conspiracy will be released exclusively in UK cinemas from 14 April 2023.