Cairo Conspiracy
Suspenseful spy thriller about a naive student who unwittingly becomes involved in the power struggle surrounding the election of a new grand imam at an Egyptian university.
Young Adam is the son of a fisherman and has been accepted at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, one of the world’s top institutions for Sunni Islam scholars. On the day classes start, the Grand Imam dies unexpectedly, leaving the university rudderless and without a leader. Adam soon finds himself enmeshed in the power-play and intrigue among Egypt’s religious and political elite.
No stranger to political slants and themes, the Egyptian-heritage director Tarik Saleh (THE NILE HILTON INCIDENT) rolls up his sleeves and dives straight back into what he does best with this feature film. Nearly twenty years ago now, Tarik Saleh produced an award-winning documentary on Guantánamo Bay's detention camps. Now, he paints out a portrait of characters whose primary devotion remains unclear: are they dedicated to Islam, or themselves?
The film won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival and was Sweden’s entry for the Oscar for Best International Film.