Premiered in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, this rose by another name begins as a murder-mystery taking place in a modern Egyptian madrasa. The film begins with innocent rural scholar Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) entering the prestigious if somewhat hermetic environs of Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque and university. When the older student who has taken Adam under his wing is murdered, and the school’s imam dies, leaving his colleagues to jostle discreetly but determinedly to take his place, one of great power and influence, Adam is drawn wholly over his head into a web of political intrigue. The king to his pawn is Colonel Ibrahim, the agent whose dishevelled appearance masks a keen and ruthless intelligence, who orders Adam to infiltrate and inform on the various cliques amongst his fellow students in what is ultimately a complex and gripping political thriller.

Notes by Kevin Coyne