Early in “Eagles of the Republic,” essential character George Fahmy (Fares Fares), a (fictional) famous person within the Egyptian movie trade so well-liked and bankable that others (half-mockingly) bestow upon him the title “Pharaoh of the Display,” will get instructed by an actor he seems to be down upon for starring in a latest government-backed propaganda image that “I don’t see a contradiction between being an artist and being a patriot.” That’s a thorny line that every one actors of a sure degree of success have to query, because the distinction between rousing Hollywood leisure and glorifying nationalistic propaganda proves vanishing skinny.
But when there’s one actual ethical worth that Fahmy — in any other case a cheater, a liar, and an all-around egocentric prick extra involved together with his consolation than politics — prizes, it’s his integrity as an actor, and his perception that the work he does has actual inventive worth. So he scoffs at a proposal to star in a movie commissioned by the federal government that glorifies the rise of present Egpytian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to energy – till he’s approached in his automobile one night time by brokers of the federal government threatening to vanish his teenage son. From there, the movie turns into one thing of a political thriller, however it’s at its most attention-grabbing when it stops to query whether or not nice artwork can — and even must be — made underneath the grip of totalitarian management.
Directed by Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh, “Eagles of the Republic” is the ultimate movie in his casual “Cairo” trilogy, which began with 2017’s “The Nile Hilton Incident” and 2022’s “Boy From Heaven.” Like these two motion pictures, “Eagles of the Republic” is a thriller set in Cairo however produced exterior of Egypt, with Fares in the primary function. Every movie has some sharp criticism towards Egyptian society and the federal government, however “Eagles of the Republic” matches it with a transparent wistfulness for the nation and affection for its cinematic custom, full with a gap title sequence that pays homage to the hand-drawn, richly colourful and emotional Egyptian movie posters of the ’50s and ’60s.
Happening (loosely) in 2015, the movie unfurls at an unhurried tempo throughout a two-hour runtime, working to situate the viewers in Fahmy’s world and populate it with memorable supporting characters, from his a lot youthful and tortured girlfriend or his homosexual supervisor. However the pressure between Fahmy’s devotion to his craft and the life-or-death stakes of the scenario he’s been compelled into offers the movie’s typically slack pacing some chew, and the movie is dynamite each time it goes on set to discover the making of the mission, which a producer likens to Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” — simply to offer a way of the dimensions, and close to spiritual worship for el-Sisi, that the monstrosity of a blockbuster is working on.
Rattled by the menace on his son (an unimpressed and embarrassed teenager he nonetheless adores), Fahmy reluctantly indicators on to the movie, with the intent of discovering a solution to inform a compelling story across the state-sanctioned mandates. It proves harder than he expects, as the federal government bureaucrats overseeing the movie tamper with the information and make rewrites to glorify the regime. The movie seems to be on the battle via a number of angles, as Fahmy grapples with being made a logo of the president in opposition to his will. He’s instructed to not put on a bald cap and make-up to raised resemble the president, in order that his likeness can as a substitute be canonized with el-Sisi’s. In a scene with different actors enjoying Sisi’s fellow army officers, he tries desperately to get them to carry out their roles with much less deference towards the character.
Fahmy’s delicate rebellious streak doesn’t go a lot additional than that, however it’s sufficient to develop a feud between him and Mansour (Amr Waked), a shady authorities bureaucrat overseeing the manufacturing. Waked is great and menacing within the function, and Fares isn’t extra compelling than when Fahmy is butting heads with Mansour on set. The sequences through which the crew shoots the film additionally present a few of the most memorable technical thrives for a movie that’s largely sturdy and comparatively unstylish, and Saleh has a little bit of enjoyable staging his tense thriller on some low cost trying soundstages.
Towards the final third, “Eagles of the Republic” begins to sputter its wheels, particularly when it introduces an important character within the type of Zineb Triki’s Suzanne, the outspoken spouse of a minister overseeing the movie who Fahmy falls for. Whereas Suzanne’s motivations are deliberately murky and unknown to Fahmy, she nonetheless feels appallingly underwritten for the way necessary she turns into to the movie’s climax, and the duo’s affair proves an unconvincing blemish on the movie’s climax. Normally, the ladies of “Eagles of the Republic” have a tendency towards the shallow, with Lyna Khoudri getting stranded within the fairly shallow function of Fahmy’s long-suffering, daddy issues-afflicted youthful girlfriend. It might be an intentional alternative, given how we view this girl via the lens of Fahmy’s informal sexism, however each girls nonetheless really feel extra like symbols than actual folks.
Simply when “Eagles of the Republic” feels prefer it’s starting to lag, Saleh fortunately manages to nail the movie’s ending by way of a genuinely stunning third-act growth that ups the stakes and permits Fares to actually play Fahmy’s desperation. What makes “Eagles of the Republic” fascinating is how, even because it leaves the movie world behind for extra standard political thriller trappings in its ultimate act, it nonetheless ties the motion to the struggles Fahmy undergoes as an actor and as a political mouthpiece. By the top, he sums up the plight of the career succinctly: “We are saying phrases that aren’t our personal and expertise emotions that aren’t ours.”
Grade: B
“Eagles of the Republic” premiered on the 2025 Cannes Movie Competition. It’s at present searching for U.S. distribution.