Canada/Ireland | 2009
90 minutes
Director/Screenplay: Ruba Nadda
Producers: Daniel Iron, David Collins
Photography: Luc Montpellier
Editor: Teresa Hannigan
Production designer: Tamara Conboy
Costume designer: Brenda Broer
Music: Niall Byrne
With: Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Siddig, Tom McCamus, Elena Anaya, Amina Annabi
Festivals: Toronto, Pusan 2009
Best Canadian Film, Toronto International Film Festival 2009
In English and Arabic, with English subtitles
Censors rating tbc
A tantalising brief encounter in a classic romantic movie mode, Cairo Time traces the intimacy and understanding that grows between Juliette, a Canadian magazine editor (Patricia Clarkson, clearly etched and luminous as ever) and Tareq, the Egyptian friend (courtly, intriguingly unattached Alexander Siddig) assigned by her diplomat husband to show her the sights of Cairo. As Tareq guides Juliette through the chaos and uproar and shows her the city’s wonders, their pleasure is increasingly shadowed by the loyalty they feel to the man who put them together – Juliette’s husband and Tareq’s friend. That Arab-Canadian filmmaker Ruba Nadda shot an entire feature in that glorious, infuriating melee of a city is a miracle in itself and one that any armchair traveller will relish.
“Delicately rendered... notable for its grace and sophistication.” — Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly
“A sensuous vacation, Cairo Time's sweet melancholia will linger long after the final credits roll.” —Toronto International Film Festival
“It’s a current and universal parable on the very dark
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