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Tarek Saleh’s Les Aigles de la République Hits Theaters, Starring Fares Fares as an Actor Coerced to Portray Egypt’s Leader

The film closes the director’s Cairo cycle through a tonal turn from sly comedy to political thriller.

Overview

  • The feature is now playing in cinemas as French outlets spotlight its release and thematic ambitions.
  • Fares Fares plays George Fahmy, a revered Egyptian movie star pressured by authorities to embody President Al‑Sassi in a state‑commissioned biopic.
  • The plot pulls Fahmy into the regime’s inner circle, including a clandestine relationship with the general’s wife who supervises the production.
  • Lyna Khoudri appears as Fahmy’s much younger companion, and Zineb Triki plays his mistress, who is also the wife of a minister.
  • Reviewers present the movie as the capstone to Saleh’s Cairo trilogy and note its meta "actor playing an actor" device in a lineage that includes Sunset Boulevard and Birdman.