World premiering at the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Fest to mixed reviews, it was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Internationmal Oscar.
George Fahmy, one of Egypt’s most renowned actors, orders restaurant staff to remove a man observing him and his son Ramy. During a date with Donya, his younger actress girlfriend, Fahmy is approached by a group, which probes about his loyalty to Egypt and President Abdel 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 of the issue of whitewashing, and besides he’s too tall. 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.
However, after going to his estranged wife’s apartment to check on Ramy, he decides to take the role.
Though dealing with relevant issues of dissidence and anti-authoritarianism, in art as well as politics, the movie is shapeless and strugges with navigating a more nuanced tone.
The tale begins as a slick contemporary fable, but midway it loses its narrative drive, and fails to probe in a deepr manner the text’s comic or dramatic options.
As a result, you are left with an entertaining but underwhleming portrait of a celeb whose vices and vanities persist even under dire, even life-threatening circumstances.
The ending might be both shocking and baffling. Fahmy is invited to a film industry red carpet and takes Ramy instead of Donya. He sees Suzanne and flirts with her, leading to a hotel tryst. When he returns home and he is unble to show any photos with Ramy, Donya reveals she knows about 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 parade participants begin shooting, trying and assassinate the president. Fahmy escapes onto a military helicopter, where Mansour interrogates some captives before getting rid of them.
The helicopter lands at a secure bunker, where they learn that Sisi is alive, the Guard has suppressed the coup and censored it from media, and that the Defence Minister is with the troops. Mansour reveals that the dinner Fahmy had attended with the minister had been a coup planning session and arrests all participants except for Fahmy.
Some time later, the film is released and Fahmy joins some men betting on horse racing.
Overall Eagles of Iron was one of the weakest and least satisfying films in this year’s oterwise sturdy competition.
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
