Mawlana – The Preacher Directed by Magdy Ahmed Ali
Mawlana – The Preacher
Director: Magdy Ahmed Ali
Starring: Amr Saad, Ahmed Magdy, Dorra Zarrouk
Country: Egypt
Year: 2016
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
"You are a star, a real star."
The film The Preacher - Mawlana director Magdy Ahmed Ali was presented at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival.
He made a favor to a politician and the thanks was that the imam Sheikh Hatem gets to participate in a religious television program. He is the preacher.
The popular success of Sheikh Hatem is rapid and extensive. He is young, bright, cute, funny, storyteller. He talks about religious themes in positive ironic intelligent way.
Like all TV stars he follows very carefully about his image and business.
He marries a beautiful woman, has a son. He follows the sponsors, he earns a lot of money, has bought a nice house, he has a brilliant life.
People understand his message, he uses metaphors, allegories, intelligent jokes. The success is huge, signs autographs, people stop him in the street, everyone recognizes him.
Something breaks in family life. The child has an accident and falls into a coma. His wife depressed leaves the husband with the children, for treats him abroad.
Something breaks also in the job. Consequently, the structure of the film is modified. The genre becomes as a thriller, a noir, but always with some fun.
The president's son would like to meet Sheikh Hatem. He has a problem in the family and he would like to help him.
The brother Hassan, young heir of a wealthy family, has a religious problem.
"He becomes Christian." Sheikh Hatem was astounding, so the problem is very serious,if he had became a Muslim fundamentalist it would have been less bad compared to abjure thought.
Something very bad is happening in Egypt.
The house, in which rallied the Sufis is attacked, burned and killed members.
The same happens for a group of Christians, they were beaten and imprisoned.
In TV the preacher expresses grief for the horrible death of the Sufi master.
The worst is coming. A bomb explodes in a Coptic church. To stop the riots of Christians, some Imam of Cairo are called to meet with Coptic bishop.
The last sermon of Sheikh Hatem is in the church. Give up the cheerful tone, the easy joke, ironic wit, he is very sad. Christians inside the church understand it, we are all Egyptians, there are no Muslims or Christians.
A film is not easy but the director has clear ideas. He is honest, smart. He prefers to show the preacher in close-up, with his ironic and never-ending smile.
The imam Sheukh Hatem is always in the film. He is the metaphor of Egypt. The actor Amr Saad is very good, follows the story and he is more and more nervous, more and more anxious.
He is Egypt's representation.
The location of the film, Ali, The Goat and Ibrahim, directed by Sherif El Bendary, is Egypt in its entirety. The protagonist is Nada, a pretty and peaceful goat. She has a boyfriend, a human being. Ali loves a goat! He keeps her at home, he cuddles her, they sleep together, and talks with her, maybe they do more, but nobody knows. Sherif El Bendary focuses all the attention on the goat, creating joy and, at the same time, sadness.