Cairo Conspiracy: belting political thriller with shades of All the President’s Men and The Name of the Rose

Graffiti artist turned director Tarik Saleh has been banned from Egypt since his depiction of police corruption in 2017′s The Nile Hilton Incident. He’s unlikely to receive a red-carpet welcome after this belting political thriller.

Set inside Cairo’s Al-Azhar University – Istanbul’s Süleymanye Mosque makes a suitably grand stand-in – Cairo Conspiracy chronicles the skulduggery behind the election of a grand imam. Strip away the Sunni setting, and it could be a John le Carre novel.

Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), a naive youngster from a fishing village on a scholarship to Al-Azhar, is warned by fellow student Zizo that: “Your soul is pure, but every second in this place will corrupt it.” As if to demonstrate the point, Zizo is murdered not long after. The malleable Adam is promptly recruited as a mole by Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares), a shadowy representative of the state security agency. The aim is to make sure that the government’s pick is elected as the school’s grand imam over the rival cleric being touted by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The pleasing two-step between the straightlaced recruit and his dishevelled, jaded handler allows for lighter moments as tensions mount. Adam could not be less like James Bond, but he is a blank slate and a good student. This lack of experience allows him to infiltrate a radical group of Islamists and hoodwink higher-ups. His success, however, places him in increasing jeopardy as the election looms.

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This is a man’s man’s world and all the worse for it. When women do appear on screen, they, like Adam, are pawns in a bigger game.

A deserving winner of the best screenplay at Cannes last year, this nail-biting drama is offset by Barhom’s terrific wide-eyed performance. The gorgon’s knot of political and religious machinations add distinctive hues to a genre piece with shades of All the President’s Men and The Name of the Rose.