Umm Kulthoum traces Juliette's journey through Cairo, writes Soha Hesham Umm Kulthoum's songs served as the gracious companion to Ruba Nadda on her recent film Cairo Time. A Syrian- Canadian writer and director, Nadda chose Cairo as the setting for her big-screen feature depicting a foreigner who falls in love with a stranger in a country newly visited. Screened in the Egypt Through the Eyes of the World section of the Cairo Festival, the film effectively portrays issues in the daily life of the city but occasionally falls into the trap of endorsing stereotypical perceptions of the Arab world. The middle-age heroine, Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), arrives in Cairo both for a holiday and to await the return of her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official delayed in Gaza; she is met by Mark's friend Tarq (played by the Sudanese-British actor Alexander Siddig), a former UN employee who now owns a café in Cairo and offers to escort her on her tours of the city. At the airport they bump into Tareq's former lover Yasmeen, who invites them to her daughter's wedding in Alexandria and comments on Juliette's name, mentioning Romeo. Nadda takes her time, contrasting Juliette's stressed life as a fashion magazine editor in New York and her leisure in Cairo -- the relaxed expression on her face as she pulls a chair into the balcony overlooking the Nile and reclines into it, and then the way she distances herself during the oil wives gathering, sitting by the fountain, where she eventually strikes up a conversation with another of the women there; they make friends. With that expatriate, Juliette goes on a White Desert safari, an opportunity for Nadda to make use of the striking beauty of nature. Over tea following a meal with the Bedouin ladies, the expatriate confesses her love for an Egyptian man whom she almost left her husband for. He was a wonderful lover, she explains when she is asked why she didn't, but too possessive and demanding -- an Arab stereotype. Harassed by men on the streets -- a scene Nadda exaggerates somewhat -- Juliette complains to Tareq and then attempts to join her husband in Gaza, only to be sent back at the checkpoint. Devastated, she resolves to make her stay as enjoyable as it can be, and she and Tareq begin to spend more time together. They chat, they exchange intense glances over tea and shisha while they visit tourist sites. Juliette manages to mingle with Egyptians, repeating the word shukran (thanks), and plans to write a piece about Egyptian street children for her magazine. On a Nile boat cruise, Juilette expresses yet another stereotype when she announces to Tareq that all men in Egypt have four wives. The house maid has a headscarf on -- another implausible interpolation on the part of Nadda -- but Juliette is unperturbed, and later, when enters a mosque with a headscarf around her own neck, she leaves it on for a prehistoric site as well... The score of Cairo Time is conspicuous: as well as the great diva, Abdel-Halim Hafez and the call to prayers bring the scene to life. By the time they attend Yasmeen's daughter's wedding, the love that has grown between Juliette and Tareq -- in the intense warmth of the event -- is palpable. Juliette promised Mark she would not visit the Pyramids until he arrived, but when he does, she has just returned from there, where she went with Tareq. Despite the stereotypes, Nadda's Arab roots show in her understanding of emotional nuance and her fascination with the city. Cairo Time won the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009, with numerous positive reviews. The question remains as to why Nadda cast a Sudanese-British actor for the main male role (Siddig himself is something of an Arab stereotype, with roles in the 2005 Syriana and Julian Schnabel's 2010 Miral ). With a simple dramatic curve, in addition, Cairo Times is dangerously close to being a tourist film.
