Tarik Saleh follows his previous features, The Nile Hilton Incident and Cairo Conspiracy, with a darkly comic thriller about a famous actor, who, despite his will and better instincts, is forced to take on the role of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in a new propagandistic biopic.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
Reteaming with Fares Fares, who had starred in his first two movies, Saleh tackles the dirty dealings between unstable political regime and the film industry, showing how artists could be co-opted and coerced into making agit-prop movies.
The tae begins when George Fahmy, one of Egypt’s most renowned actors, orders the restaurant staff to remove a man who’s observing him and his son Ramy.
During a date with Donya, his younger actress girlfriend, Fahmy is approached by a group, which probes his loyalty to Egypt and President Fattah el-Sisi.
Replaced in his current film project because of censorship, Fahmy is informed by his manager Fawzy that the government wants him to star as the president in a new film. Fahmy declines because he feels it’s an issue of whitewashing–and besides he’s too tall for the part.
When his colleague Rula declines to be pressured into denouncing him on TV, Fahmy is stopped by armed men who threaten to kill his son. After going to his estranged wife’s apartment to check on Ramy, he decides to take the role.
Though dealing with relevant issues of anti-authoritarianism–in art as well as in politics–the movie struggles with navigating a more nuanced satirical tone.
Fahmy is invited to a film industry red carpet and takes with him Ram, instead of Donya. He sees Suzanne and flirts with her, leading to a hotel tryst. When he returns home and is unable to show any photos with Ramy, Donia reveals she knows about his affair with Suzanne and leaves him.
Shooting on the film continues and Fahmy pleads Rula’s case to be un-blacklisted with the defense minister. Mansour reveals that he knows about Suzanne’s affair and that the minister is obsessed with Rula. He threatens Fahmy with a forged suicide note and requests that Rula meet with the minister while wearing a wire.
Before Fahmy gives his speech at the military academy, an aide requests that he salute as he finishes. When Fahmy does so, several participants begin shooting, trying to assassinate the president. Fahmy escapes onto a military helicopter, and Mansour interrogates some captives before getting rid of them.
The helicopter lands at a secure bunker, where they learn that el-Sisi is alive–the Guard has suppressed the coup and censored it from the media, and the defence minister is with the troops.
Mansour reveals that the dinner that Fahmy had attended with the minister had actually been a coup planning session, and he arrests all participants except for Fahmy.
The ending might be both shocking and baffling. Sometime later, the new film is released and Fahmy joins a group of men betting on horse racing.
The tale begins as a slick contemporary fable, but midway it loses its narrative drive, and fails to probe in a deeper manner the text’s comic or dramatic potenmtial
As a result, viewers are left with a sporadically entertaining but ultimately underwhelming portrait of a movoe star, whose existence is defined by equal measure of selfish vanity and naive ignorance, and thus fated for comeuppance.
End Note
Overall, Eagles of Iron was one of the weakest and least satisfying films in the overwise sturdy competition of this year’s edition.
World premiering at the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Fest to mixed reviews, the film was later selected as the Swedish entry for the Best International Oscar Award.
Cast
Fares Fares as George Fahmy
Lyna Khoudri as Donya
Amr Waked as Dr. Mansour
Zineb Triki as Suzanne
Husam Chadat as General
Ahmed Khairy as Fawzy
Cherien Dabis as Rula
Donia Massoud as George’s wife
Sherwan Haji as Yasser Islam
Tamim Heikal as Abu Talaat
Suhaib Nashwan as Ramy
Tamer Singer as Tarik-Abdalla
Ahmad Diab as Studio man
