Cairo Conspiracy review – religion and politics collide in a thrilling Egyptian noir

In 2017, director Tarik Saleh was declared persona non grata in Egypt but now, with Cairo Conspiracy, he returns some fire. Though circumstances dictated he had to shoot in Turkey, his Cairo-set thriller noir is a scathing indictment of the Egyptian security state and the religious institutions that buy into it, all while innocent lives are left shattered and forgotten in the wake of petty and inscrutable scheming. Knotty and fiercely angry, it won Saleh the Best Screenplay prize at the 2022 edition of Cannes and it’s easy to see why in this clever, twisty, and (most importantly) thrilling story of students and spies.

Always keeping its story firmly rooted in reality, Cairo Conspiracy is set at Cairo’s Al-Azhar university, one of the oldest and most prestigious centres of learning in the world and a key seat of power in Sunni Islam, watched over by the Grand Imam, who commands great religious and political power and respect. When the sitting Grand Imam suddenly dies, multiple players suddenly step up to appoint their candidate, from the hardline Muslim Brotherhood to the state’s military and intelligence services, represented here by the cynical but conflicted Ibrahim (regular Saleh collaborator Fares Fares).

Rumpled and exhausted but still extremely capable, Ibrahim is a spy in the classic Le Carré mould, passed over for promotions in favour of his younger and more violently gung-ho colleagues, and Fares gives a great performance, initially full of frustration before becoming warmer as he takes a liking to his new informant. This informant is Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), who is actually the character we spend most time with. The son of a fisherman from a remote town who got into Al-Azhar on a scholarship, his lack of local affiliations makes him the perfect candidate for a mole, charged by Fares with finding dirt on all the Imam candidates that the state disapproves of.

Motivated by a mixture of threats and sweet promises, Adam starts out terrified and deeply disillusioned by the involvement of politics at Al-Azhar, but eventually finds himself rather taking to spycraft, especially infiltration and even interrogation work. Barhom makes for a fantastic lead as Adam’s innocence and fear is corrupted and calcified into something colder and more calculating. Like any good noir protagonist, though, Adam is in way over his head, and his fraught espionage scenes are incredibly exciting, Saleh building unbearable tension within both the cramped confines of the student quarters and the wider, more chaotic city at large.

Privacy is almost impossible to come by for Adam, so suspicions are raised swiftly – a scene in which the local Muslim Brotherhood leader slowly deduces Adam’s real intentions is real edge-of-your-seat stuff, as is the moment in which Adam must betray his only real friend at the university to keep his cover. Saleh also conjures up some ambitious, unique set-pieces, the most visually striking of which takes place during a competitive Quran recital that attracts a huge audience, making superb use of this rather unique setting.

With Cairo Conspiracy, Saleh has taken a milieu and premise that could have been rather stuffy and worthy, but has instead made it both exciting and accessible. It’s a proper throwback to the sorts of lo-fi paranoid thrillers that Hollywood used to do so well (the low-tech environs of the university really help give it a timeless feel, with only a Mo Salah poster placing the film in this decade), a genre that is sorely missed but given a new lease of life in this film’s deadly Cairo underbelly.

Cairo Conspiracy is released in UK cinemas on 14 April.