Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

GazerRise Fantastic!

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

gjehle1 To the pretentious reviewer who uses 'melodrama' as an insult: What do you know about Egyptian film? Or Arab culture for that matter? If you knew something, you would have realized that any film that begins with a cameo from Edward Said must be somewhat worthwhile (Or at least play with some interesting ideas). Yes, this movie is firmly situated within the romantic-melodramatic genre common in Egyptian cinema. Cinema is at its root a popular entertainment, and many of the greatest masterpieces of American cinema (which most world cinemas have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to emulate since the 30's) were produced in a similar context. What is 'Casablanca' if not a melodrama? Egyptian cinema likewise operates within the framework of melodrama, and utilizes these conventions to tell stories which have a deeper meaning. Watch 'Du'at al-Karawan,' 'la anam,' 'sigara wa ka's', etc... and tell me that's not art. Youssef Chahine has experimented with auteur-style film-making (Iskandriyah leih?) but he also -like Barakat and the best of the Egyptian directors before him, knows how to exploit the narrative tropes of the melodrama genre to create art. So leave your film-festival snobbery at the door and enjoy. 'Al-Akhar' is not Chahine's best film (in my opinion, that's Bab al-Hadid) but it is a well-told story which also takes a frank look at Egyptian society and the complex relationship between the West and the Arab world.

mmolabi This movie is one of the best romantic dramas and examples of political realism in the Middle East region. It discusses what is the meaning of terrorism and who is a terrorist, and who is the real terrorist. The movie shows how power can destroy the most beautiful things in the world. The movie is extremely intelligent and it has many interesting ideas. Every time one watches the movie, it is as if you are seeing it for the first time because you see additional layers of meaning in the movie. The movie is a love story between Adam, the son of an American woman and an Egyptian man (who are married only for business reasons without love) and Hanan, a female journalist from a poor family. Adam studied human rights and terrorism. Hanan's brother is a member of a terrorist group. The movie explores how their life develops and grows after their marriage. The American woman becomes jealous on her son and doesn't want someone to take her son and wants to destroy their love story. It's a very touching love story and expresses much about the situation faced by poor Egyptians and gives the viewer lots of questions as to how people become terrorist and what leads a young guy to pursue this path.

mramses L'Autre (Al Akhar as we say it in Arabic) succeeded in attracting more people who were never big fans of Chahine's previous movies. But on the other hand, the majority of Chahine's fans didn't like the movie, or at least they said:"May be it is a good movie, but not Chahine's", and I am one of them. The characters in the movie are not deeply described, symbols used in each character are most of the times superficial. Fans of Chahine used to watch his movies to spend 2 hours of deep thinking and analysis, not only of the artistic way and the impressive mise-en-scene of Chahine - which were very good in l'Autre also - but also for the revolutionary ideas and the "Deep Diving" he used to make in his characters and the strong contradictions inside one character as well as between different characters. L'Autre was Me versus The Other, but this Me was not surely Me, and the other was too much the Other. And to understand this, just compare this Other with Chahine's Others in Salaadin 1956,and Adieu Bonaparte 1984. I was never a fan of Nabila Ebeid, but I have to admit she played a very good role. Mahmoud Hemeida was very good in a role that did not show most of his strong capabilities. Hani Salama made big progress from EL Massir.

elina-5 A very good romance between a prince and a unsubdued girl, so it is for a general public. "Le Destin" (1997) was better since it was more historical and the songs were really part of the film. But "L'autre" includes also a fair good critics of terrorism (in Algeria and in Egypt). So, if you've never seen a Chahine's film, see this one, before "Le Destin" and long for the next one.