"Cairo Time" Critique: After the Waves come the Pyramids and Love

This past weekend was glorious for me. As a whim I decided to check out the US Open of Surfing. The energy at the Open was frenetic and magical. My primary reason for going was to see Carissa Moore surf. Her win was the icing on the cake. The state of euphoria I was in had to come to an end but I didn't want it to crash abruptly. I planned to see "Cairo Time" prior to my decision to attend the Open, so this was the perfect time to unwind. I left Huntington Beach and headed north to Los Angeles to check it out.

"Cairo Time" stars Patricia Clarkson (Juliette), Alexander Siddig (Tareq) and the city of Cairo. I say Cairo because director Ruba Nadda unabashedly makes a spectacle of the city like Richard Linklater did with Vienna in "Before Sunrise."

"Cairo Time" tells the story of a woman, Juliette, on vacation in Egypt waiting for her husband, Mark, who is working for the United Nations in Gaza. Juliette expects her husband soon but is met by Mark's former colleague, Tareq. Tareq escorts Juliette from the airport to her hotel. Mark's arrival time is unknown which causes and already lethargic Juliette to go stir crazy and we are left to wonder if she becomes Tareq's lover before her husband arrives.

Nadda's film plays out like a series of postcards painted by Edward Hopper. There's a sense of solitude even in a city as densely populated as Cairo. The pace of the film is extremely even and things happen gradually; getting glimpses here and there of Cairo's beauty along with its sad reality of poverty. Patricia Clarkson is elegant and lovely; Tareq is dashing and humble. Nadda teases us with possibility of romance while blatantly inserting frames of Egyptian culture.



Nadda's direction is intentionally timid and vague. The sparse dialogue allows us to soak in the city and make us forget that we're watching a movie but rather taking a journey to a strange land that we only read about in books. Like meeting an interesting stranger and wanting to know more about them, "Cairo Time" does not resolve anything but allows us to cherish the time we had; a slice of life that we wish we were part of. If you're looking for point to the film, you're missing the point. "Cairo Time" is a beautiful poetic film and a must see for anyone who is a hopeless romantic who yearns to visit exotic lands.