In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. This is the myth that is allegedly the backbone upon which the new Ahmed Helmy film Alf Mabrouk was based. Of course, the observing eye would become aware of another backbone to the film; one the makers of the film forgot to mention and that is a 1993 Hollywood production entitled Groundhog Day; a fact that did not sit comfortably with me as I watched the latest movie directed by Ahmed Nader Galal.
Alf Mabrouk: the remaking of a Day and a Film......
A review of Ahmed Helmy’s latest film, directed by Ahmed Nader Galal.
The film tells the story of Ahmed Galal (a shrewd observer would also detect that this is also the director’s name), an irresponsible, egotistical accountant working in a stock-trading company. At the beginning of the film, he is portrayed as a man who has no limits; a man who can fire employees just to maximize profits and who deals with his family with such carelessness that he is entirely out of touch with what is happening in their lives. The events of the film take place on Ahmed’s wedding day, which goes horribly wrong. He wakes up to experience the usual domestic routine: His father shouting at him to get out of the bathroom, his mother complaining of the work load, and his customary bickering with his sister. In the street, he witnesses a burglary but doesn’t bother to stop the thief. On his way back from work, he finds himself wrongly accused of a hit-and-run he didn’t commit. The onlookers persuade him into taking the victim to the hospital. After going to the police station, he finds that his car has been seized by the authorities. The climax is when, crossing the street, a huge truck hits him and he dies.
Well, technically, he doesn’t. He wakes up the next day, initially assuming that what has happened in the past 24 hours was a dream, before he experiences the same day all over again, meeting the same exact characters, having the same conversations and witnessing these unchanged incidents. The main problem in this film is the lack of one uniformed tone. The first half, which is loaded with the usual helmy, overused punch lines, does not properly introduce the second half which is darker in tone and mood. You don’t quite believe the character transformation which happens so suddenly. And the performance of the leading man did not quite help in selling this to the audience.
Perhaps the forte of the film was the performance delivered by the supporting cast especially from Laila Ezz El Arab, Mahmoud El Fishawy and Sarah Abdel Rahman who play Ahmed’s mother, father and sister respectively. In the end the journey that Ahmed goes through in the film is quite predictable. He learns to change his life, reconcile with his family, accept responsibility, and open-up his eyes to the world for the first time in his life. All threads of the story ultimately lead to a major sacrifice that leaves the film with no satisfying resolution.
| 
