There are movies that embrace you, and there are movies that depart you uneasy lengthy after the credit roll. ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ (2025) belongs to the latter. The Egyptian Filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s first characteristic movie is fantastically shot, takes an intimate method to non-public battle, but is cruel in what it reveals about human cruelty.
The digicam lingers on the primary character’s face, exhibiting despair taking kind, and thru gore, blood, sexual assault, and an exaggerated unfavourable portrayal of Egyptians, it turns into tough for the viewers to bear.
‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’, a world co-production involving corporations from Egypt, Tunisia, Qatar, Germany, Sudan, France, and Saudi Arabia, was written by Mostafa, Mohammad Abdulqader, and Sawsan Yusuf, with cinematography by Mostafa El Kashef.
It earned two nominations on the 2025 Cannes Movie Pageant, the Un Sure Regard Award and the Caméra d’Or.
A Cairo of shadows and defeat
‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ tells the story of Aisha, performed by Buliana Simon Arop, a 26-year-old Sudanese girl dwelling in Ain-Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo, alongside a big African migrant and refugee neighborhood.
Set in opposition to the backdrop of financial hardship, the movie, launched on 20 Might 2025, exhibits tensions between the African migrants and native Egyptian gangs by means of the eyes of Aisha, who really feels unsafe within the neighbourhood.
Whereas she finds consolation in her friendship with Tawfiqah (Maya Mohamed) and in an undefined bond with Abdoun (Emad Ghoniem), Aisha lives a life that appears to be in perpetual movement.
Working as a caregiver for Khalil, an aged wheelchair consumer performed by Mamdouh Saleh, Aisha is predicted to take care of his sexual wants. When she complains to her employer, her considerations are dismissed, and the employer coldly tells her to “think about it a part of the nursing service.”
Making an attempt to make ends meet, she additionally takes on employment as a home helper beneath the stress of a gang member (Ziad Zaza), who blackmails her into giving him spare keys to the houses the place she works in trade for defense.
Caught between the concern of working with a gangster whom she aids in stealing houses and an abusive job, Aisha struggles to deal with her misplaced battles and her wild creativeness of an ostrich.
The movie features a magical component of Aisha seeing an ostrich watching her; it serves as a nod to the movie’s title, symbolizing Aisha as a fowl that may not fly away nor escape actuality by burying its head within the sand.
Its depiction of hallucinations beneath duress, refined use of symbolism, and dedication to exhibiting somewhat than telling exhibit a robust command of cinematic storytelling. The moody and dimly lit streets, together with the lingering sense of hazard Aisha feels, give the movie a definite noir ambiance.
Whereas the movie makes use of close-up photographs of Aisha’s face to focus on her feelings and immerses the viewers in silence to evoke their very own unprompted emotions, its bleak outlook, specific use of vulgar language, scenes of sexual assault, and graphic violence blatantly urge the viewers to see Egypt as a form of dwelling hell.
Specifically, a gang ruling the neighbourhood, dealing medicine, and rallying its troops, all whereas escaping punishment, portrays Egypt as a lawless nation. Including salt to the wound, when Aisha questions the financial institution teller a couple of lacking EGP 200 (USD 4.21) observe from her withdrawal, he responds with the worst of curses to insult her and bodily abuses her.
A bitter verdict
Perceived as insulting and defamatory towards Egypt, many viewers criticized Mostafa for his over-the-top portrayal of Egyptians as racist, xenophobic, and violent, and of Egypt as an general darkish, sorrowful nation.
Mennah, a consumer on Letterboxd, a social platform for movie fans, reviewed the movie, stating that Mostafa produced the movie primarily for the awards, aiming to cater to a Western narrative that portrays Egypt as a bleak, depressing, poverty-stricken, and tragic nation, to realize the approval of movie competition juries.
Personally, I echo Mennah’s sentiment. A body of Talaat Harb sq. in Tahrir, downtown Cairo, has no enterprise being gloomy in a rustic that’s virtually all the time sunny. On this shot, and in lots of others, the movie tries in each facet to evoke the sensation of despair.
Whereas the story is informed from the perspective of Aisha, a weak girl escaping conflict and gang exploitation, an Egyptian film of this magnitude, meant for a world viewers, calls for a extra nuanced portrayal, with important distance.
Aisha’s battle might have been additional magnified by depicting the constructive and unfavourable features of a refugee’s life in Cairo. Moments of kindness, compassion, and hospitality would have supplied a compelling distinction to the hardship and unlucky state of affairs she endures.
Whereas it’s comprehensible that, by means of the eyes of a displaced and, probably, depressed particular person, the entire world seems desolate, the movie might have achieved higher impression had it trusted viewers to find their compassion for Aisha on their very own somewhat than steering them towards it.
For somebody on the lookout for an aesthetically pleasing and fantastically shot movie, watch ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’. For the faint of coronary heart, don’t.
These drawn to hauntingly lovely cinematography will discover ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ charming. However, for many who are simply unsettled, the movie’s uncooked depth might make it a tough watch.
The opinions and concepts expressed on this article are the writer’s and don’t essentially mirror the views of Egyptian Streets’ editorial workforce. To submit an opinion article, please e-mail [email protected].