بلاش تبوسني [Kiss Me Not] (2018, Ahmed Amer)

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

لراعي والنساء (The shepherd and the women [1991, Ali Badrakhan])

Also known as: Al-Ra'i wal Nisaa.
I reviewed this on IMDb, so I think I can post that review also here:
I am new to Egyptian cinema. I took the DVD from the shelves because of my insatiable curiosity - and because it was provided with subtitles. I learned in the meantime that I saw here some of the superstars from Egypt. On the other side I am surprised about the relatively low score it gets here. Actually, liked it. It's certainly not a masterwork, but a decent melodrama.

It is about Hassan, who is just released from prison and announces himself at the house of his deceased cell mate. There are three women living by themselves in a relatively isolated spot. Initially they reject him, but then they gradually relate to him and accept him in their household. They understand that life is easier with a "shepherd" around, even though this particular shepherd is not a great assistance in their daily work. He admits right in the beginning that laziness indeed is his main predicament. I liked the quiet flow of the every-day life. Someone who knows Egypt better might even notice the slow changes of nature. There are signs of growing intimacy between Hassan and the women. I think their use of head scarves is relevant here. At that point I asked myself, if it could be possible to film such scenes today: the way they look at each other, close-ups of hands while touching or even embracing. Would they kiss in films nowadays? Or would it be possible to see a couple in bed?(I don't know, but I would like to know and at some point I might also find out.)

We also learn that gossiping is spreading fast: three women and a stranger living together is not seen upon with mild eyes by the community. But this is only hinted at in this film. (Would that be a major plot line in 2017?) In the end the melodrama culminates. Those scenes are not played too well, more in a too impassioned telenovela style. Maybe the end is to please the silent majority, to restore moral consensus? But it was still unexpected how it actually finished.

Maybe this is not the top of cinema from Egypt, but I enjoyed this peek into a culture and an industry I am not acquainted with. 
6/10

678 - fascinating new cinema from Egypt

Remember this name: Mohamed Diab - ladies and gentlemen, we raise from our seats and great a great and fresh new voice from Egypt. The name again: Mohamed Diab.

Watch the work of this man. The name again? Mohamed Diab!

678 is a bus line in crowded Cairo, just the perfect location for frotteurs or just plain gropers. They grope e.g. Fayza, a clerk in administration who therefore prefers to spend the money she doesn't have on taxi trips. There is Seba, who is raped after a football match. Her husband is devastated by this tragedy, maybe even more than she. It's not easy to be a macho in present-day Egypt. There is also Nelly , stand up comedian working in a call center.
The stories of these three women are interwoven. We see the reactions of the society (didn't they provoke the attack? better forget about the incidents .... )
Mohamed Diab makes it clear that sexual harassment is not a joke. At some points the good intentions might overshadow aesthetic considerations, but that didn't disturb me very much, as this film gave insight into aspects of Egyptian reality which I might never acquire as a traveler.
This is Arab Spring in the Cinema Hall -- a must see, which hopefully won't be just an incident in Egyptian cinema.

678 - a must see from Egypt!