Summer is upon us, and so is another Ahmed Helmy movie; don't get me wrong, I say this with delight, not sarcasm, since I happen to enjoy his performances regardless of his films. This year he has come out with “Asal Iswid” (Black Honey). In this film, he portrays a character named Al-Masry Al-Said Araby, an Egyptian American who left Egypt with his father when he was 10 years old, and came back to Egypt 20 years later, after his father's death. He planned to come to Egypt permanently and tries to find a stable life, so because of this, he enters Egypt with his Egyptian passport, leaving his American passport behind. Due to the way he dressed (apparently wearing shorts makes you suspicious in Egypt), and the way he speaks, he is mistaken for a foreigner, and gets a tip-top treatment until he reveals he is Egyptian; then the treatment becomes less than stellar. After he gets his American passport back, he throws out the Egyptian one, and flashes the American one constantly. He sees the passport as giving him some kind of power which the other couldn't provide: people, police officers, and even guard dogs back down when he flashes his passport. However, things get worse again for him when he loses his passport along with his money and mobile phone during a protest against Bush and the war on terrorism. Now, with no identification, he must get an Egyptian I.D in order to get an Egyptian passport. Apparently, he can't get another American passport because the American government doesn't recognize that he actually left America, since he didn't depart using the American passport. Along with his childhood friend, Sa'id (played by Edward), he goes through all the bureaucratic red tape and up against all the corruption of the government offices. The film satirises the way Egyptians must deal with everyday life, and how difficult it must be for most people to live in a place that is easily describable as chaotic. On the other hand though, the script by newcomer Khaled Diab, is a little too thin, shallow, and predictable to tackle this issue head-on, even in the context of this type of comedy. Most of the jokes stem from the same basic plot line of "the fish out of water story," but here, it's more of a fish that is learning to breathe in water again after it's been out of it for too long. But there is no real "new information" that film tries to provide us with; the director Khaled Mara'i ends up trying to say the same thing that has already been said many times before in other films. The film tries to make the point that although Egypt has problems that might be extraordinary to an outsider, once you get to know it, you wouldn't want to leave it. The message is blasted loud and clear; most audience expects it even before seeing the film. It's nice though that the film is not heavy on just bashing America, although there is, of course, the occasional joke here and there; but it's more Pro-Egypt than anti-anything else. Unfortunately, there are more than a few glaring plot holes in the film; for example, why wouldn't the American embassy help him get another passport even if he left America with the Egyptian passport? He could have easily provided them with his social security number, and they would have been able to help him (I speak from personal experience here). Another example is that although the protest where his American passport gets lost was an anti-Bush protest and the film gives you the impression that it's set during that period, it's clearly shown in the embassy that Barack Obama is the new president; so there is definitely a continuity problem here. Even though a lot of Ahmed Helmy's characterisations are believable, there are some things that just seem to be done to get laughs; he walks around in his underwear in his friend's family house as if this is normal American behavior, which is hardly true. Also, the impression he gives that Americans are stingy is something of an overstatement. The film's supporting characters provide some laughs, but are basically stereotypes of portions of Egyptian society, and that seems to be the only reason they are there: to give a glimpse of the problems which the Egyptian public faces. Even Helmy's character is a little too thin, and we don't get to learn that much about him. This is more of a comedy situation than anything else; the audience is simply supposed to laugh and be amused at the skits that are occurring around the plot. The cast does their job and is not boring at all; the one who gets the most laughs is Amy Samir Ghanim, who plays Mirvet, Sa'id's dream girl. She is an English teacher who actually knows very little about the language itself. But the film is clearly carried on Ahmed Helmy's shoulders, and he provides the most laughs. He does a pretty good job convincing us that he is an American, although when he speaks more than a couple of sentences in English, the American accent starts to fade quickly. As the film's title might suggest, living in Egypt is bittersweet, but the filmmakers seem to want us to read more into the film. Honestly, though, if we do, we'll walk away with very little, and probably not enjoy the film very much either. Because of this, I say take the film as it is: a light hearted comedy that provides us with a few laughs. And that's a lot more than most comedies do nowadays.
