Very clever, amusing, and important movie. Writer (Waheed Hamed), and director (Sherif Arafa), along with star (Adel Emam) made with each other 3 successful movies before (El Noom Fi El Asel) or (Sleeping in Honey) (1996). In all of them: (El Le'b M'a El Kobaar) or (Playing With The Hot Shots) in (1991), (El Erhab We El Kabab) or (The Terrorism and The Kebab) in (1992), then (El Minssi) or (The Forgotten Man) in (1993), you'll find elements of comedy and action, though mainly the drama centers around the relationship between the simple Egyptian citizen and their government or the rich upper class.
So it's always the "authority", whether power or money, and its unfairness that bugs (Waheed Hamed). Therefore, he writes about endless ironies that happen between it and the simple citizen. Though here it wasn't the most imaginative between the triple's previous movies only, it was also the one that speaks about a problem that bothers the 2 parties of the conflict together this time.
As bold, imaginary and funny as it may seem, (El Noom Fi El Asel) is about an epidemic of impotence that invaded all of the Egyptian capital's men. It's a cross between fantasy and socio-political comedy. There is some bitter sense all over it, even it's a comedy. The pace makes it like a thriller movie where the facts appear suddenly for the man who tries to disclose the mystery of the case. There is some powerful satire about the lost confidence between the people and their government, so how the citizen's simple dreams became so impossible, and how the frustration hit competently the public in this contemporary moment.
There are good characters done wonderfully by good actors: the governmental principal, played by (Sami Sarhan), who's the only one without any disease and bragging of his sexual capacity; as we wonder is he for real? Or is he that lair all along?!, the plumber who killed his wife, played by (Diaa El-Merghani), with all the natural pride and the not believing of his condition, and (Abdel Rahman Abou Zahra) as the funny editor-in-chief.
There are some nice scenes as well, for instance: the venereologist's clinic which looked like a perfect funeral, the big funny scene of many quarreling husbands and their wives in the police station, the bitter scene of the government man while lying on TV in the face of the people.
As for the shortcomings, I didn't like the ribaldry of some moments, but thank God that they were little. In other movies, with the same subject, they could have been numerous. The comedy wasn't rich, and there weren't many laughable scenes; so for a satirical comedy, it was satirical more than comedic. The storyline of leaving Cairo to be cured wasn't complete, hence looked eventually superfluous. And there is a scene where the brothel's old owner, played by (Myriam Fakhr Eddine), had a monologue about the absence of love and warm feelings in previous incapacity's days. However when they cast (Myriam Fakhr Eddine), the star of the classic romantic movies of the 1950s, to say such a delicate monologue with a sensitive elegy of a music by (Omar Khairat) in the background, while - in the same time - it comes from a character of an old prostitute; that surely made prostitution look like high love!, therefore I always felt that this monologue was misplaced.
Although the fantastic factor here was just a way to read into this society's subjugation and fear, but still the weakest point is the ending; actually it said that the solution is nothing but a good conversation between the government and the people where the principals can hear the voice of people's pains clearly. Yes, it's kind of incitement to wake up, scream, and beat the real incapacity towards subdual, but the movie said it "literally" in sort of tasteless forthright end that had nothing to do with all the nice and smart madness that we've seen till this point.
The meaning of the movie's title (El Noom fi el Asal) in English is (Sleeping in Honey). It's at the Egyptian slang stands for the absorption in negativism, the busyness of so many trivial things and forgetting about the momentous issues. So the message is clear: if one nation dedicates only for silence and sex; then it sinks in honey, moreover it could mean a helpless principals too; who are working nothing to modify the citizen's life or save that citizen from a potent frustration.
(El Noom fi el Asal) or (Sleeping in Honey) is a satirical comedy mixed with fantasy. Its best was mirroring the real epidemic in our society, and its worst was its serious, in-your-face, ending. Anyway, I loved it as a fantasy with message in a form of a commercial movie; according the Egyptian cinema, this is bold and rare, and as a whole; it wins my admiration to a considerable extent.
So it's always the "authority", whether power or money, and its unfairness that bugs (Waheed Hamed). Therefore, he writes about endless ironies that happen between it and the simple citizen. Though here it wasn't the most imaginative between the triple's previous movies only, it was also the one that speaks about a problem that bothers the 2 parties of the conflict together this time.
As bold, imaginary and funny as it may seem, (El Noom Fi El Asel) is about an epidemic of impotence that invaded all of the Egyptian capital's men. It's a cross between fantasy and socio-political comedy. There is some bitter sense all over it, even it's a comedy. The pace makes it like a thriller movie where the facts appear suddenly for the man who tries to disclose the mystery of the case. There is some powerful satire about the lost confidence between the people and their government, so how the citizen's simple dreams became so impossible, and how the frustration hit competently the public in this contemporary moment.
There are good characters done wonderfully by good actors: the governmental principal, played by (Sami Sarhan), who's the only one without any disease and bragging of his sexual capacity; as we wonder is he for real? Or is he that lair all along?!, the plumber who killed his wife, played by (Diaa El-Merghani), with all the natural pride and the not believing of his condition, and (Abdel Rahman Abou Zahra) as the funny editor-in-chief.
There are some nice scenes as well, for instance: the venereologist's clinic which looked like a perfect funeral, the big funny scene of many quarreling husbands and their wives in the police station, the bitter scene of the government man while lying on TV in the face of the people.
As for the shortcomings, I didn't like the ribaldry of some moments, but thank God that they were little. In other movies, with the same subject, they could have been numerous. The comedy wasn't rich, and there weren't many laughable scenes; so for a satirical comedy, it was satirical more than comedic. The storyline of leaving Cairo to be cured wasn't complete, hence looked eventually superfluous. And there is a scene where the brothel's old owner, played by (Myriam Fakhr Eddine), had a monologue about the absence of love and warm feelings in previous incapacity's days. However when they cast (Myriam Fakhr Eddine), the star of the classic romantic movies of the 1950s, to say such a delicate monologue with a sensitive elegy of a music by (Omar Khairat) in the background, while - in the same time - it comes from a character of an old prostitute; that surely made prostitution look like high love!, therefore I always felt that this monologue was misplaced.
Although the fantastic factor here was just a way to read into this society's subjugation and fear, but still the weakest point is the ending; actually it said that the solution is nothing but a good conversation between the government and the people where the principals can hear the voice of people's pains clearly. Yes, it's kind of incitement to wake up, scream, and beat the real incapacity towards subdual, but the movie said it "literally" in sort of tasteless forthright end that had nothing to do with all the nice and smart madness that we've seen till this point.
The meaning of the movie's title (El Noom fi el Asal) in English is (Sleeping in Honey). It's at the Egyptian slang stands for the absorption in negativism, the busyness of so many trivial things and forgetting about the momentous issues. So the message is clear: if one nation dedicates only for silence and sex; then it sinks in honey, moreover it could mean a helpless principals too; who are working nothing to modify the citizen's life or save that citizen from a potent frustration.
(El Noom fi el Asal) or (Sleeping in Honey) is a satirical comedy mixed with fantasy. Its best was mirroring the real epidemic in our society, and its worst was its serious, in-your-face, ending. Anyway, I loved it as a fantasy with message in a form of a commercial movie; according the Egyptian cinema, this is bold and rare, and as a whole; it wins my admiration to a considerable extent.
