Cairo Time

Director: Ruba Nadda
Cast: Patrica Clarkson, Alexander Siddig and Tom McCamus
Releasing in cinemas: 26 August 2010
Rated : M

Cairo Time is a gentle pleasing love story told against the exotic location of Cairo, and while the plot’s fairly routine, it works surprisingly well. Filmed in a manner which should encourage a new level of tourism to Egypt, the film illustrates the saying ‘He who hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world’. In this fleeting love affair, there’s a similarity to Michael Winterbottom’s Genova in making a picturesque ancient city a vital part of the film.

Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), an attractive Canadian fashion magazine editor in her middle years, arrives in bustling Cairo to enjoy a short holiday with husband Mark (Tom McCamus), an United Nations official stationed in Gaza. He’s unavoidably detained and can’t meet her at the Cairo airport as planned.

Instead she’s meet by the charming Tareq (Alexander Siddig), once a security officer working for Mark, and his very good friend. Finding the chaotic streets of the city too much to handle on her own, Juliette encourages the polite and attentive Tareq to escort her on some sightseeing.

After a disrupted bus trip to see Mark in Gaza ends with Tareq coming out to rescue her and drive back to Cairo, there’s clearly some romance brewing between the attractive couple. They attend a fabulous traditional wedding full of colour and exuberance, and visit the pyramids bathed in golden haze. The pyramids have special significance to Juliette. So what happens when Mark reappears on the scene?

Syrian-Canadian writer/director Ruba Nadda whose previous feature was Sabah, has created a love letter to a city as a background to a brief love story. Nadda says of the film “ The city (Cairo) is alive. It’s gritty and historical and seething with humanity and I just had to capture it on the screen.” Little doubt she’s been largely successful.

Alexander Siddig (Syriana), a gaunt version of Omar Sherrif, comfortably plays Tareq the attentive and restrained love interest to the demure fifties-something ‘British’ lady of soft voice and quiet manner, who has just a suggestion of Deborah Kerr. Patricia Clarkson, seen in numerous films usually doing supporting roles - most recently Elegy and Vicky Cristina Barcelona - here takes the lead romantic character of Juliette, and manages to carry it off superbly. Sexual fireworks there are not, this is a sensual relationship but one that avoids wild passion via a natural compelling performance.

Much credit goes to the cinematography of Luc Montpellier, which is so important in the framing of the story. Cairo really looks at its best contrasting the beauty and chaos in well-composed shots and camera movements.

The pyramids have never looked better and neither has the wide blue Nile. Yet the exotic noisy confusion of the back streets and wild traffic aren’t ignored. An important scene concerns youngbloods following the lone genteel rose through town, when Juliette is concerned, yet is also flattered since young men have shown no interest in her for a long time.

Cairo Time softly spins a simple story of two lonely people unexpectedly meeting in an exotic city, learning to care about each other despite different cultures. The old-fashioned style and gentle pace may deter those into Sex in the City, but the thoughtful depth of Clarkson’s measured performance should be worth the price of a ticket. The film is helped along it’s way by a music track with haunting piano melodies.

This is a refreshing change from the plethora of action thrillers and horror movies. After seeing Cairo Time you might just be headed for the nearest travel agent to book a Cairo holiday.

John Bale