Pretty bold, by the way, it is divine conspiracywhich deals with the corruption of the Egyptian state and in religion, which a year ago had its premiere at the cannes film festivaland won the Best Screenplay Award. Because its manager, Tarik Saleh, was born in Sweden, she was sent from that country to compete for the Oscar for best international filmcategory in which it was nominated Argentina, 1985.
The director has made a spy drama in which a young student and believer sees with his own eyes things he would never have imagined once he arrives at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, founded in 972. Adam is the son of a fisherman in Manzala, who receives a scholarship to go there to study Islamic thought.
Everything attracts him, from discipline to when a roommate offers him a cigarette and takes him to see the night in Cairo. But what will unnerve him most will be the sudden death of the head imam, in front of the student body, from a sudden heart attack, and political maneuvering will not be long in coming. Of the imams themselves and of the state.
The State, with blood on its hands
To make matters worse, one night he sees how masked men kill his partner in the street, and almost immediately he is contacted by a secret service agent, Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares, the policeman of crime in cairo -2018-, by the same director and released in Argentina). Adam is the chosen one: now that his friend is dead, he must take his place and become the informant of the state security apparatus.
And if you don’t investigate and discover the subversive views of the other imams, you could become their friend. So Adam (Tawfeek Barhom, as convincing when he prays as when he proves himself a spy) the first thing he discovers is that the scholarship had its motive, and he must meddle between the imams to, at the same time, intercede however he can, so that the candidate preferred by the government be elected, and not another cleric governed by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is said to be a terrorist organization.
All of this in a religious learning center… Obviously the film was not shot in Egypt, but mainly in Turkey, and although it is all fiction, in one scene, in a government office, we see a portrait of President Abdel Fatah El – Yes, yes. Everyone draws the conclusions he wants.
TO divine conspiracy It can be seen as a thriller, or a drama, but it’s also a film that examines human nature in a disturbing way. All that is told is fiction, yes, but it is already known that the manipulations of politicians can reach extremes such as those marked by this film.
“Divine Conspiracy”
Drama. Sweden/France, 2022. Original title: “Walad min al-Janna”. 126′, SA 13. From: Tarik Saleh. With: Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Makram Khoury, Mohammad Bakri. Rooms: Cinépolis Recoleta, Patio Bullrich, North Showcase.
Source: Clarin
