Best Egyptian Films Done in the last 20 Years

It tells about the smallest details and crypts in the lives of four couples friends.

A personal tragedy brings a woman closer to a handful of trusted friends in this independent drama. Salma (Hanan Turk) is a middle-aged woman who has achieved success in her profession but is still searching for contentment in her personal life. After her mother unexpectedly dies, Salma is sent into an emotional tailspin, and while her stepfather (Samie Al-Adel) tries to help by letting her move into his home, nothing seem to make her feel better. One day, Salma receives the first in a series of anonymous gifts and letters from someone who appears to know her, though she has no idea who they might be. As Salma sorts through a handful of male admirers in hopes of uncovering the identity of her new benefactor, she is reunited with two close friends from her days at school, Yusriyah (Hend Sabri) and Doha (Menna Shalabi), who commiserate with her as they share their own difficult life events. Ahla al Awqat (aka The Best of Times) was the first feature from writer and director Hala Khalil, and was screened as part of the 2005 San Francisco Arab Film Festival.

Every day Nawara goes to work along a path that takes her between the alleys of the poor neighborhood and the roads that lead to the villas within a luxury compound. Every day, on her way to work, she carries the worries of the people in her neighborhood and their simple dreams. Little does she know that the spring of 2011 will bring her something unexpected.

After studying literature at Cairo University, Dunia, 23 years old, wants to become a professional dancer. She attends audition for an oriental dance contest where she recites Arabian poetry without any body movement. She explain to the perplexed jury that a woman can't move her body or evoke act of love when society ask women to hide their femininity. She is selected and meet Beshir, an intellectual and activist who will supervise her thesis on ecstasy in Sufi love poetry. Their attraction is mutual. This could be liberation for Dunia but the constraints on women in Egyptian society goes deeper than she suspects.

'El Gezira' is a film about a community of Upper Egypt residents living in El Gezira (the Island). They have their own set of rules, ethics and traditions. They also plant drugs and buy arms from Sudan. The officer in charge of the region turns a blind eye to these happenings, and in the beginning, the government takes no heed of the Island. At the start of the film, we witness the death of the old 'Kabir el Gezira' (the island's ruler), leaving the land to his son Mansour. The first half follows Mansour as he takes control of his land and must deal with a band of other drug lords who are greedy to take control of the island. The second half of the film deals with the political conflict. It follows the government's side of things (which finally decides to take action) at the same time as Mansour's side as the two react to each other's threats and the conflict escalates. 'El Gezira' is a multi-genre picture. It is a thematic film on Egyptian politics, but also a drama, romance, action and thriller.

This Egyptian action film is about Tito (Ahmad Al Saqa), who was sentenced to 16 years in jail after a burglary when he was a kid. After he gets out, he goes back to crime with a corrupt police officer (Khaled Saleh), but also befriends Fares (Amr Waked), and the two open up a unique restaurant. Fares introduces Tito to Nour (Hanan Turk), a physician, and they fall in love, and Tito tries to leave his life of crime.

Egyptian director Youssef Chahine exposes the links between power and fanaticism and denounces intolerance in this bitter portrait of the Egyptian business world, where unconditional drive for money rules. Adam (Hani Salama), the son of a rich businessman and his American wife, meets Hanane (Hanane Turk), a journalist of modest means at the airport on his return from his studies in the US. She is part of a campaign against a wealthy elite, which has thrived on plundering its own people. They fall in love and get married. Corruption is everywhere in the country and American interests are taking over the lucrative tourist trade. Adam's rich parents and their friends in the government are at the heart of this corrupt system. Adam's mother, Margaret (Nabila Ebeid), nourishes a strange affection for her son. She is possessive to the point of violence and is ready to get rid of Hanane, whom she considers her rival. Adam turns against the global economy of which his parents are the perfect examples as he sees through the greed of international speculators and the secret ties that bind them to fanatical fundamentalist sects. The fact that Hanane's brother has become an Islamist terrorist does not help matters. The resistance that the couple has to put up makes them grow strong, for which they pay a heavy price. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999.

While trying to help an inmate at the mental hospital, a psychotherapist unravels mysteries he never thought existed.

A mix between an honored police officer who fight the crimes and a drug dealer in the same person and a confliction in and out.

Witnessing the killing of his father as a kid, Ibrahim is dragged to the criminal underworld of Egypt. While making a name for himself, he meets Abdul-Malek Zarzur, the crime lord of the town.

Sheikh Hosny is a blind man who lives with his old mother and his frustrated son in the Kit Kat neighborhood. His son Youssef dreams of going to Europe to find work, and has a relationship with a divorced woman named Fatima. Sheikh Hosny refuses to admit his handicap and dreams of riding a motorcycle like every sighted person, he also spends his nights smoking marijuana with the locals in order to forget his miseries after the loss of his wife and selling his father's house. He knows everything about his neighbors and their secrets and love affairs.

The story is set in the 12th century in Arab-ruled Spanish province Andalusia, where famed philosopher Averroes is appointed grand judge by the caliph and his liberal court judgments are not liked by everyone. The caliph's political rivals, centered around the leader of a fanatical Islamic sect, force the caliph to send Averroes into exile, but his ideas keep on living thanks to his students.

After turning thirty, Gmilla's dreams of emigrating abroad have collapsed. She meets Youssef who is also thinking of traveling and they make a pact that they will help each other to emigrate more easily. But the plan goes in an unexpected direction....

Meditations on corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, homosexuality, and drugs in central Cairo.

Those who have fully enjoyed their bodies cannot be submissive. And those who never have? Can they survive the slavery of solitude and impotent acceptance of what they can't change or embrace? This is the every day story of two women taking care of their sick man.

A female talk show host in Cairo stirs up political controversy when she focuses her on-air discussions on the topic of women's issues.

Ram leaves the nomadic life and embarks on a quest for knowledge in a pharaonic Egypt mired in political intrigue. Based on a biblical story.

Mariam is living a troubled life with her husband Ahmed, suddenly her life turned to a nightmare after she dreams of crimes she discovered that it's a real crime after she wakes up, she decides not to sleep anymore.

A Christian kid suddenly is forced to go to a public school after his father dies and because of a misunderstanding everyone thinks that he's a Muslim.

This is the story of lost love in a controversial setting. Manal, Zaki and Mounir are in there twenties, living in a confined community where basic needs are met yet chaos and disorder brew. The two boys are in love with the same girl who finds herself being the bet for a football match between them; the winner marries Manal. This story reflects a football and play-station youth and how they deal with their emotions in a community that is increasingly closed off and isolated.

Mahmoud was part of the armed groups coerced by the Egyptian Government which carried out attacks on protestors in Tahir Square the 2nd of February 2011. Since then, Mahmoud has lost his job, been subjected to humiliating treatment, and been ostracized by his own community that live close to the Pyramids. He and his family are close to despair when he meets Reem, a secular young Egyptian divorcee and modern-thinker who works in advertising. Reem is a fervent ecologist who lives in a wealthy neighbourhood of Cairo. This will be the encounter of two people but also of two different worlds.

Khaled returns from USA to his mother's funeral at his hometown: Alexandria, Egypt. He decides to make it a fresh new start even if it meant mending his first love story yet it proved a horrific failure. Khaled clashed big time with a changing more conservative Alexandria but He also stumbles upon fresh youth struggling for their under-ground music bands, art and ideas. in the middle of all the confusion, Will it ever all makes sense at the end? A question for the youth and the city to answer.

An Egyptian teenager finds himself at the crossroads of religious fundamentalism and family.

In one of the most extraordinary nights in the history of Egypt, the prisons were suddenly opened, leaving thousands of prisoners wandering the desert. Among them was one man trying to find his way in a city that is rapidly changing for good.

Set against the momentous backdrop of the whirlwind Tahrir Square protests, Winter of discontent poetically explores the anguish of a victim state terror in 2009, presaging and intertwining with the pivotal events in 2011 that changed the face of Egypt. As the stories of the characters unfold, we are propelled headlong into the heady, often surreal atmosphere of terror and uncertainty that characterized the last days of Mubarak's rule.