L'Autre

Minor Chanine, perhaps, but still an intelligent, idiosyncratic and enjoyable movie. It's a Romeo and Juliet-style fable about the ill-starred love between the son of a a rich couple happy to deal both with dubious Western business interests and fanatical extremists, and a journalist from a poor family keen to uncover corruption in high places. As it proceeds towards its unexpectedly bleak outcome, Chahine pulls out the stops with his unique blend of melodrama, dance musical, political comment (it begins with two characters going off to an appointment with Edward Said, who cameos with a few brief words on political, national and cultural identity) and forthright sensuality. A pot-pourri held together by the director's bravura style and abiding commitment to the ideal of tolerance, and by Ebeid's extraordinary performance as the hero's scheming, insanely jealous mother, at times eerily reminiscent of Callas in Pasolini's Medea.