Ahmed Ezz wakes up suddenly to find himself lying beside a dead body. He gets up, not knowing where he is or who he is. He runs away and keeps running for about 10 minutes.
That is the opening scene of Ezz’s latest movie “Al Shabah (The Ghost).
The first and most important thing the movie did was bring Ezz, one of today’s most prominent and handsome Egyptian actors, back to the big screen after the failure of his last movie “Al Rahina (The Hostage). Despite the buzz surrounding the movie’s premiere, the presence of co-stars like Nour and Yasmine Abdel Aziz, as well as brilliant direction of Sandra Nashaat, “Al Rahina was not as successful as everyone had predicted.
“Al Shabah, however, is no disappointment, and a refreshing change from the movies I’ve seen since the start of the noisy and crowded summer season. The movie revolves around Ezz, who wakes up one day with complete amnesia. He does not remember a thing about his past, not even his own name. This theme has been used excessively in Egyptian and Western movie, but “Al Shabah presents it in a different way.
The film jumps into fast-paced mode instead of lingering on how much suffering the amnesia is causing the star. We accompany our hero on a rollercoaster ride, with one action-packed scene after another, as he struggles to discover his identity, meeting the other characters along the way.
Just as Ezz discovers he could be “Saad , a sneaky thief who plays everyone to get what he wants, he is shocked to realize he might also be “Assad , the pampered son of a wealthy businessman. Assad has committed murder and faces a long jail sentence.
The second part of the two-hour movie is dedicated to answering the question: Is he Saad or Assad?
Amr Arafa, the director, and Wael Abdallah, the scriptwriter and producer, are the true stars of the movie as Ezz and his leading lady Ziena could have done a better acting job. Ezz plays the same down-to-earth character who lets life take him where it may, while Ziena is the typical baladi girl, a role very similar to the one she took on a few years ago in “Hikayet Hob (Love Story).
