It’s early days on the Cannes Movie Competition, so awards prognostication may appear just a little untimely, however nonetheless, it’s laborious to think about that the exceptional efficiency given by Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares in Tarik Saleh’s searing political thriller Boy from Heaven will go fully unnoticed by this yr’s jury. Topping the work he did in Saleh’s 2017 Sundance hit The Nile Hilton Incident, Fares instructions the display from the second he arrives, taking part in a personality whose raveled look conceals a ruthless effectivity, a laser-focused thoughts and a completely pragmatic idea of morality.
It’s humorous that Boy from Heaven ought to premiere after James Grey’s Armageddon Time, one other movie a few younger man’s impolite awakening and one other movie that ruminates on the way in which destiny is formed — or dictated — by race and sophistication. However Saleh’s movie throws faith into that already-volatile combine, and whereas it doesn’t swerve the fragile points that include any dialogue of radical Islam, Boy from Heaven exhibits a uncommon stage of philosophical engagement with the topic, one thing that pays off fantastically in its articulate and nuanced final act.
The nominal star of the movie is Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), the son of a poor Egyptian fisherman who lives together with his widowed father and two brothers in a tiny seaside village. With out telling his domineering father, Adam has been learning privately, ensuing within the supply of a scholarship to the distinguished Al-Azhar College in Cairo, an influence base of Sunni Islam. To Adam’s shock, his father encourages him, seeing the chance as a present from God. However when Adam arrives, his success quickly turns bitter: The Grand Imam falls fatally in poor health, making a delicate vacuum in Egyptian fragile energy construction.
Which is the place Fares’ secret serviceman Colonel Ibrahim is available in. The authorities favor a average candidate, one with out ties to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Ibrahim is ordered to infiltrate and manipulate the choice course of, however his mole on the college, Zizo (Mehdi Dehbi), has blown his cowl. Zizo is tasked with discovering a alternative, so he settles on the naïve Adam to take over. Adam is flattered by Zizo’s consideration, they usually spend a night swigging Pink Bull and dancing to hip-hop in a downtown bar, however when Zizo is viciously murdered, Adam quickly works out that two mysterious sides are very a lot at struggle — and he’s within the center. Summoning Adam to undercover conferences, Ibrahim places Adam into more and more harmful conditions with little regard for his security, pushing the quick-witted Adam to suppose on his ft.
Saleh, who additionally scripted, has cited Umberto Eco’s novel The Identify of the Rose as an affect, which isn’t so shocking, given the non secular setting. However Boy from Heaven additionally may be very a lot concerning the workings of the trendy world and the way politics and faith conflict and entwine in any nation. There’s additionally a splash of The Parallax View in there, and Barhom makes a really believable patsy. Certainly, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing very a lot in any respect, till the movie’s gripping denouement exhibits the actor’s hidden firepower.
Tellingly, Boy from Heaven needed to be shot in Turkey, since Saleh is persona non grata in Egypt. However although it does clarify just a little background of the historical past there, and positively illuminates a really sophisticated topic, Saleh’s movie works on many extra ranges than sociopolitical, delivering a classy grownup thriller whereas on the similar time exploring the extreme psychological dynamic of the connection between Adam and Ibrahim, who won’t be as invincible as thinks he’s. It’s an odd match for Cannes, however extra competition slots absolutely will observe — and hopefully larger tasks for this good, trendy director.
