Originally published in Fanack.

Since Egypt first started producing films in 1930, it has been the cinema epicenter of the Arab world. The country’s golden age was the 1950s, where it was producing upward of 50 films a year and at times labeled the ‘Arab Hollywood’. In 2022, however, one of Egypt’s most acclaimed directors filmed the majority of his latest release in Istanbul.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi isn’t mentioned by name in the Egyptian-Swedish director Tarik Saleh’s latest film Boy From Heaven. But the recurring use of his portrait, watching over every government room or street coffee stand, makes him a central character. Sisi’s iron fist shapes the entire story, as the other characters – including the protagonist Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) – navigate the narrow margins his oppressive rule awards them.

Adam comes from a humble family of fishermen in Manzala, north Egypt. But after gaining acceptance into Al-Azhar University in Cairo, he leaves behind his widower father and two younger brothers. As soon as he arrives however, the earth shifts below the world’s most prestigious Sunni Islamic educational institution as the Grand Imam dies. Immediately, the state’s internal security force meets to inform their agents on the state’s preferred successor and to hatch a plan to bring him to power. Along the way, Adam’s piousness and relative innocence will be put to the test.