Tamer is directing his first feature film; his friend Ibrahim is making a documentary about this project. So with Balash Tebosni we watch film like a Russian doll with different layers. The main problem of Tamer is that the actress Fagr suddenly has religious reservations to a kissing scene. The scene is about a married couple in which the husband has performance problems of his own. A kiss might be a starter to solve this problem. Fagr has come to the conviction that the display of intimacy on the big screen is an obscenity that is not compatible with the demands of religion. She does her best to sabotage this kissing scene as good as she can.
Her different strategies are probably supposed to be funny. Now, what is hilarious to some may be deadpan to others. I saw the film at an open air presentation together with many Arabs. There were very few laughs, if any. This tells me that the jokes didn't work for them either.
Then there is the meta layer, the so-called documentary about Tamer's movie. This would be a good opportunity to reflect about the present day situation in Egypt. Religion, especially the fundamentalist version of it, is marching ahead, gaining always more popularity, There are some flashes from old Egyptian melodramas. As someone who is not really acquainted with the history of Egyptian films, this was just a glimpse. While there is a contrast between those great kissing scenes and the problems with new moralism in society, the movie rather focusses on the artistic problems director Tamer has. Thus Kiss Me Not is rather about the artistic problems an individual has. I think the film misses the opportunity to discuss the dramatic changes in society.
Amerc also uses different gimmicks as playing with different formats and beeping out obscene words. In s funny comedy this might have worked. In a lame piece like Kiss Me Not this is at best irritating.
Last year I saw Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim, a film to which Amer contributed the manuscript. This film was very enjoyable and really had different layers. It is therefore hard to undersyand, why Kiss Me Not is so mediocre.
4/10
Her different strategies are probably supposed to be funny. Now, what is hilarious to some may be deadpan to others. I saw the film at an open air presentation together with many Arabs. There were very few laughs, if any. This tells me that the jokes didn't work for them either.
Then there is the meta layer, the so-called documentary about Tamer's movie. This would be a good opportunity to reflect about the present day situation in Egypt. Religion, especially the fundamentalist version of it, is marching ahead, gaining always more popularity, There are some flashes from old Egyptian melodramas. As someone who is not really acquainted with the history of Egyptian films, this was just a glimpse. While there is a contrast between those great kissing scenes and the problems with new moralism in society, the movie rather focusses on the artistic problems director Tamer has. Thus Kiss Me Not is rather about the artistic problems an individual has. I think the film misses the opportunity to discuss the dramatic changes in society.
Amerc also uses different gimmicks as playing with different formats and beeping out obscene words. In s funny comedy this might have worked. In a lame piece like Kiss Me Not this is at best irritating.
Last year I saw Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim, a film to which Amer contributed the manuscript. This film was very enjoyable and really had different layers. It is therefore hard to undersyand, why Kiss Me Not is so mediocre.
4/10
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