Eagles of the Republic

Egyptian political thriller about a famous actor who is forced to make a propaganda film for the autocratic regime. George Fahmy is a big film star, commissioned to play Egyptian President El-Sisi. He reluctantly accepts – and then begins an affair with the wife of the general overseeing the film.

George Fahmy (Fares Fares) is a veteran Egyptian actor, known as the ‘Pharoah of the Screen’. He’s a legend, seems to be sitting on top of the world and having it all – wealth, fame and a mistress half his age. But that’s only a paper thin outside layer. In reality he takes clandestine trips to the pharmacy to purchase Viagra, is separated from his wife, and has an increasingly awkward relationship with his son.  

Then he gets a call asking him to star in a movie commissioned by the Egyptian government. He is to play the country’s President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He declines, but then finds out it wasn’t really a request – it was an order. When the filming starts, he finds himself thrown into the inner circle of power. And then, like a moth drawn to the flame, he begins an affair with the mysterious wife of the general overseeing the film. Working from Sweden, director Tarek Saleh was able to make this openly critical film about the Egyptian autocratic regime.