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12 10 2020 Cat Ruiz Kigerl FINAL POPO Int LONGTIME POPO POet Cat Ruiz Kigerl discusses her participation in the annual POPO: August POetry POstcard Fest. www.POPO.cardsCat Ruiz Kigerl was born in Se...

What the 5 NW Authors are watching. A Film Review by Cat Ruiz Kigerl. 2021

CAIRO TIME
Canada
2008. Director, Ruba Nadda
Screenplay by Ruba Nadda

Cairo Time is a subtly absorbing love story that seems to brush the surface due to the two characters barely physically touching. It is a love story of powerful chemistry. But it is a love of long gazes, gazes that hold the passion without the physical reward.
Amidst the bustling, chaotic energy of Cairo, where the mix of modern and ancient are intertwined everywhere, Juliette (played by Patricia Clarkson) and Tareq (played by Alexander Siddig) begin their almost painful dance. Juliette, is a fashion magazine editor, and the devoted wife of a United Nations official. She arrives in Cairo to visit her husband. She is middle-aged and looking a little jaded by life. But her husband is detained in Gaza where unrest has broken out. His good friend, Tareq becomes her tour guide and quick friend. We see the chemistry between them almost immediately, but always lurking in the background is the absent and detained husband. Tareq is a handsome, also middle-aged, single man who once loved, but lost.

Alongside the slow, internal burning of their love, burns the vibrant city of Cairo, and the culture of Egypt. Beautiful cinematography of the desert, of sunsets, of the Giza Pyramids, of market or souq bustle, of mosque interiors, is juxtaposed with a main music theme, composed by Niall Bryne that is equally beautiful and moving.
Juliette comes alive under the gaze of Tareq and Cairo. Her beauty surfacing, her youthfulness rekindled. The love develops slowly, in incremental scenes, as Juliette is guided by Tareq in ‘explorations’ in and around Cairo.

The longer the husband is detained, the more Juliette turns to Tareq for company, and the more he turns to her.

The clash of cultures is obvious at first. Juliette, Tareq claims, wants to save the Egyptian culture. He tells her “things are different than what she wants to believe.” In other words, he knows the classic westerner who wants to convert other cultures to his/her own.
We follow Juliette as she slowly adjusts to a wholly different culture. But there’s a question as to why the wife of a UN official doesn’t know more about the culture she’s flown into. She walks into an all-male café unheeding and in another scene, finds herself followed by men on the street while wearing an almost sleeveless blouse and skirt showing more skin than appropriate. We wonder what type of marriage she had when her husband didn’t fill her in on proper etiquette in Egypt including warnings about the men. But then again, maybe this is standard for the wives of UN officials some of whom may be oblivious to the cultures where their husband’s work.

With Tareq’s careful explanations and her own observations, Juliette finally drapes a scarf around her hair and wears long skirts not to attract attention to herself. And she begins to relish “Cairo Time.” A time that is at once slow and mindful amidst the ever-present turmoil of the city.

Overall, the film is poignant and unforgettable in its attention to the love that cannot be. Juliette’s look of regret when her husband suddenly appears after she and Tareq have almost crossed the line as lovers is heartbreaking. We see Tareq standing watching with as much sadness.

The film’s attention to Cairo and surroundings is also unforgettable. The dawn walk Juliette and Tareq take at the Giza Pyramids after returning from a wedding still in their evening clothes, is mesmerizing. They approach the mighty Pyramids in the growing light and their love is at its peak.

Arab actor, Alexander Siddig saw his role as Tareq as a groundbreaking Arab character who is a gentleman; he is sensitive and chivalrous with Juliette. He carries himself with grace and dignity and never pushes Juliette beyond her comfort zone. Siddig saw his role as significant to breaking the stereotype of the Arab man overcome with emotion often seen as a terrorist or other action type figure, and who is to be feared. Tareq shows us a man, not a stereotype. A man the viewer can fall in love with as easily as Juliette does.

As they ride a felluca (an Egyptian sail boat) on the Nile, Tareq tells Juliette, “It is said that once you have drunk the water of the Nile, you will always come back.”

But Juliette doesn’t know how to swim and isn’t about to take a chance by drinking the water. Instead, at the end of the film, she walks away with her husband who seems so much less mature than Tareq, and so much less compatible.

Still, it is how the lovers hold back that makes this movie so memorable. By not delving into a physically gratifying love, we are left with this beautiful heartfelt sharing—a once in a lifetime magic director Rubba Nadda, who also wrote the screenplay, so skillfully created for us.

The main music theme, composed by Niall Bryne. It is titled, Juliette is Happy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8cPXvmKLFw
The late Egyptian singer, Umm Kulthum’s songs were equally absorbing, adding an authentic backdrop to the film.

https://www.amazon.com/Cairo-Time-Patricia-Clarkson/dp/B0041KT3NK