CAIRO- Egyptian film director Mohamed el-Adl must be delighted with the success of hisaction movie Al-Kobar (Big Men). The new director is from el-Adl family, who own a big film production company. Al- Kobar is a thrilling analysis of the dramatic changes, which have swept across the Egyptian society over recent years, allegedly eliminating people's ethics, virtues and morals. In collaboration with veteran scriptwriter Bashir el-Dik, the youthful director, making his debut, voices his deep concern about the marriage between corrupt people and powerful officials. In this movie, el-Dik has shown yet again that he has a knack for criticising in a stinging manner the negative side of people's social ��" and even religious ��" values and ethics. El-Dik first turned his heavy artillery on corrupt officials and their assistants in the 1980s, when he did the script for Sawaq el- Otobis (The Bus Driver) starring Nour el-Sherif, and the film Al-Horoub (Escape) starring the late movie star Ahmed Zaki. Touching the same jarring nerve, Al-Kobar screams the message that corruption is no longer the exception in society, as, allegedly, many powerful officials are involved in illegal deals. Worse, the film warns that religious titles, such as Hajj (a Muslim who has performed the Major Pilgrimage), are being used as a smokescreen, to try and disguise what corrupt people are really up to. It is the death sentence given to an innocent suspect, which conveys the message in the film that the innocent always pay the price for crimes they did not commit. Meanwhile, criminals exploit their strong connections with powerful officials to pervert the course of justice and wash their hands of the blood of their victims. The gang leader in the movie, played by Khaled el-Sawi, is called the Hajj. He uses fake money to import contaminated medical equipment, while getting paid to help foreign companies dump their nuclear waste somewhere in Egypt. Mohamed el-Adl should be given credit for the casting and skilful directing. This promising film director has successfully coached actors like Amr Saad, who is very impressive in Al-Kobar. El-Dik should also be thanked for this, because the script is very impressive. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that el-Adl is unable to resist the allures of commercialised filmmaking, which has been all the rage for about two decades now. Some of the predictable cops-and-robbers chase scenes could easily have been removed, without the movie being adversely affected. The lighting engineers have also done a very good job of highlighting the agony, fear, frustration and other emotions on the faces of the actors and actresses.
