Directed by Ruba Nadda
With her latest feature, Ruba Nadda delves into the emotionally fraught territory of the fleeting affair.
In a tremendous performance, Patricia Clarkson plays Juliette, a magazine editor. Vaguely dissatisfied with her job, Juliette follows her Canadian diplomat husband, Mark (Tom McCamus), to Cairo. When she arrives, however, she learns that he's been held up in the Palestinian territories due to escalating tensions in the region. Left to wait, Juliette soon discovers that the streets of Cairo can be tough terrain for a woman on her own.
Enter Tareq (Alexander Siddig), an old friend of Mark's who becomes Juliette's companion and guide, introducing her to various Egyptian customs. The city's grandeur comes alive as he leads her through the beguiling streets of Cairo. While they wander side by side, Juliette senses an alluring kindness and charm in Tareq, and he is equally taken with her. As she waits for word on her husband's imminent arrival, the two struggle to control their obvious mutual attraction. The pyramids beckon, offering a gentle reflection of the epic desire building between the tourist and her guide. Their bond becomes increasingly complex as it evolves: is this a profound friendship or something else? Adding to the discomfort is the obvious loyalty they both feel to the man they have in common – Juliette's husband and Tareq's friend – who is physically absent but still present in their minds.
Nadda directs her own screenplay, managing to avoid the stereotypical pitfalls such an undertaking could have easily delivered. And Clarkson so owns her role that it's difficult to imagine another actor having taken it on. Even if you've never been to Egypt, Cairo Time will have a ring of familiarity; the film evocatively serves as an analogy for the intricacies of passionate romances that, for practical reasons, can never be realized. Like a sensuous vacation, Cairo Time's sweet melancholia will linger long after the final credits roll.
Cairo Time follows an American magazine writer (Patricia Clarkson's Juliette) as she arrives in Cairo hoping to spend some time with her husband, though his ongoing work-related absence ultimately forces Juliette to see the sights with a friendly local named Tareq (Alexander Siddig).
Director Ruba Nadda does a superb job of luring the viewer into the proceedings almost instantly, as the filmmaker effectively captures the inherent chaos and sleaziness of the titular city - yet it's just as clear that the awe-inspiring visuals and Nadda's emphasis on seriously scenic locales inevitably ensures that the film comes off as an unexpectedly captivating travelogue.
That's time enough to have learned French, so he can act as Tivii's translator, while the latter takes a fatherly interest in stoking the child's lapsed knowledge of traditional Inuk customs and myths.
The plot, which is certainly as thin as one could possibly envision, exists primarily as a springboard for Juliette's continuing escapades in and around Cairo, with her back-and-forth banter with Siddig's character establishing itself as a highlight within the proceedings virtually from the get-go - as Clarkson and Siddig offer up compelling, thoroughly ingratiating work that draws the viewer into even the most seemingly inconsequential of their encounters (ie the two share a nighttime cruise around the Nile river).
