Egypt’s ‘Boy from Heaven,’ premiered at Cannes Film Festival

Tarik Saleh, the Swedish-Egyptian director whose latest film Boy from Heaven premiered in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival this week, laughs off the compliments.

Nonetheless, Boy from Heaven is sure to raise some eyebrows with its depiction of corruption, hypocrisy, and power conflicts between Egypt’s religious establishment and state.

Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), a young man from a fishing hamlet in northern Egypt, wins a stipend to study Islamic theology at Cairo’s famed Al-Azhar University, only to become caught in a plot to elect the next grand imam.

It’s a tale of espionage and scandal, assassins and informants, intrigues and murders.

“I know Egyptians and Saudis who go out and say the truth. [They] go to jail, get tortured, get out and tell the truth again. Those are brave people,” he told.

“I have a Swedish passport. I live in Europe. I shot the film [that is set in Cairo] in Istanbul.”

The film’s “intersection between a conspiracy-thriller and a more universal human drama” was lauded by film reviewer Peter Bradshaw.

The Nine Hilton Incident, Saleh’s most recent film, earned the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival but was banned in Egypt due to its depiction of police corruption.

“Boy from Heaven reminded me a little bit of the English author John Le Carré, who of course writes about spying and the human cost of that job,” he told.

“[Saleh] is also boldly challenging the corruption of church and state,” says Bradshaw.

Boy from Heaven strives to provide a balanced picture of the religious world, flaws and all – Al-factionalism, Azhar’s splits between liberals and conservatives – but it is not an attack on Islam itself.

The portrayal of state security’s meddling in the religious establishment, as well as the abuse of power – whether by an individual or an institution.

According to Saleh, they are the most contentious components.