El-Dealer (The Dealer), starring Ahmed el-Saqa and Khaled el-Nabawi, is the latest addition to a series of unfortunate projects el-Saqa has been associated with. Once considered the golden boy of Egyptian action films, el-Saqa began to lose his touch with last summer’s Ibrahim el-Abyad. El-Dealer marks another step downwards for the famous actor.
The movie, now screening in Egyptian cinema, had been the talk of the press for the last three years. The project release date was the source of intense disagreement between producers and distributors. Khaled el-Nabawi asked for his name to be removed from the film credits–never a good sign.
The film is narrated by el-Saqa, who tells the story of his childhood in some poor neighborhood of Cairo. The movie instantly reminds the viewer of el-Saqa’s previous work, especially Ibrahim el-Abyad. You will notice the same cracked walls of the neighborhood and the sun-burned faces of the children playing the main characters in their adolescence. The cliched storyline follows Yousef (el-Saqa) as he fights with his childhood enemy Ali (el-Nabawi) for the affections of Samah (Mai Salim). They grow older and their weapons of choice for their fights become more dangerous, but the fight goes on.
El-Saqa and el-Nabawi, both well into their 30s, play their characters starting from the tender age of 18. But the fake hair fails to convince the viewer of the two men’s ostensible youth as they grow up together and continue their battles.
Illogical turns of events happen when Samah, now married to Ali and pregnant with his child, finds an opportunity to leave the country with the bellydancing show she is part of. She takes her husband with her, but leaves Yousef behind to go to prison for unknown reasons. The two enemies follow different paths in life as Ali thrives in Ukraine with the help of a famous drug-dealer there who appoints him his bodyguard, while Yousef travels to Turkey where he starts dealing as part of a Kurdish mafia.
With pretentious and undeveloped storylines, the script gives the illusion of complexity by adding meaningless characters and unnecessary twists to the weak plotlines while scattering cliches throughout the whole film. The main female character has no say about the relationships which she falls in and out of. She is literally the “object” of the two men’s affection.
El-Saqa pulls off the normal fahlawi (knows-how-to-get-his-way-around) character he is known for, and remains in his comfort zone for this film. Mai Salim, although she appears repeatedly on screen, does not build enough momentum for the audience to sympathize with her.
Director Ahmed Saleh adds to the pain of watching this film by including hilariously silly car chases and allowing coincidences to play a main role in the development of every plotline in the whole story. The question is, will we ever create Egyptian action movies with actual story lines?
