Dir: Houssain El-Din Mustafa | Egypt, Drama 122′
The Beggar is a lyrical love story directed by Houssaim El-Din Mustafa who looks at one man’s search for the meaning of life in 1970s Cairo.
This seventies cult classic really captures the era with a score of hits from Marc Bolan (“Jeapster for your Love”), Semprini and even Jimi Hendrix. A nightclub singer croons Shirley Bassey’s “Something in the Way He Moves”; a teenager rocks false eye lashes and black ‘kinky boots’. There’s snogging in bed, cleavages aplenty (and that’s just the women). There’s even a product placement for Johnny Walker whisky.
Sexual jealousy, infidelity and religion must have been provocative themes in the Middle East back then, yet Egypt emerges as a fun, permissive place to be, at least for middle classes. But what starts as a lighthearted comedy often drifts into dark melodrama. These tonal shifts are managed with dexterity, the humour giving way to some emotionally fraught scenes in chintzy domestic settings by the Nile with a riverside panorama that shows the 5-star Cairo Sofitel still under construction.
The focus is Mr Omar (Mahmoud Moursy), a sharp-suited lawyer caught in a midlife crisis and a loveless marriage to Zeinab (Maryam Fakhruddin). The stooge is his beret-toting, pipe-smoking friend Mr Mustafa (a sort of Egyptian Jacques Tati) who introduces him to nightclub singer Miss Margaret. Things move fast, but sadly married men are not her bag, and Omar realises his predicament.
The lawyer then meets Belly dancer Warda at the Capri Nightclub. And he’s smitten. Put off by his marital status and kids, Warda also turns him down. So Omar vents his frustration by accelerating at top speed when driving her home: it’s a clever psychologic ploy that uses terror to create sexual tension allowing Omar to finally get his leg over. Trying to change his life, he creates a kitsch love nest with a wardrobe full of the latest fashions for Warda, but soon, as predicted, he loses interest.
Omar’s problem is not clearly sexual frustration, but a lack of self-realisation. Financial success is not the only goal in life. Wracked with guilt at lying to his wife and daughter, and unfulfilled by his romantic encounters, the lawyer gives up his practice to a former colleague Osman, and turns to Sufism in the hope of enlightenment, amid scenes that use magic realism to push home the spiritualism of this branch of Islam.
The Beggar is an intelligent and entertaining film despite its rather convoluted and confusing ending. Seventies Egypt is still a man’s world where most women are seen as simpering side-kicks, happy to stay and home and look after the children, even though some are outwardly emancipated in the creative industry. Interestingly the director highlights the close father/daughter relationship that sees Omar, by his own omission, as his teenager’s close friend, and not just her loving her father. @MeredithTaylor
CAIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024