Swedish-Egyptian Filmmaker Tarik Saleh to be Honored at Lumière Festival with his "Cairo Trilogy"
Recognized for his political commitment, his tense and inspired direction, as well as his biting dialogue and corrosive humor, Tarik Saleh has made a name for himself with his thrilling political thrillers. He won the screenplay prize at Cannes in 2022 for his feature film "The Cairo Conspiracy". This film is the second installment of his Cairo trilogy (not to be confused with the literary work of Naguib Mahfouz), which consists of "The Nile Hilton Incident" released in 2017 and "The Republic's Eagles", which will be released on November 12th. A Cinema Between Scorching Reality and Tense Fiction Formerly a graffiti artist and journalist, Tarik Saleh infuses his films with a gripping documentary-like tension. Drawing inspiration from real-life cases and explosive political contexts, he brings to life ambiguous characters, often trapped in corrupt systems. His camera closely follows the faces, captures the violence of silences, and films the city as a character in its own right. Between a tense thriller and a social fresco, his style evokes both the cinema of Costa-Gavras and that of Paul Greengrass, master of tense realism ("Bloody Sunday"), with his handheld camera, his breathless rhythm, and his desire to stick as closely as possible to political truth. A Special Retrospective at the Lumière Festival The Lumière Festival, which will take place from October 11th to 19th in Lyon, and during which Hollywood filmmaker Michael Mann ("Heat", "Ali") will receive the prestigious Lumière Prize, will offer film enthusiasts a true dive into Tarik Saleh's concise but incredibly rich filmography. The filmmaker will lead a highly anticipated masterclass on Wednesday, October 15th at 3:00 PM at the Pathé Bellecour cinema. This moment promises to shed light on the behind-the-scenes of his aesthetic, screenwriting, and ideological choices, as his work is traversed by the tensions of the contemporary world.
