El Hareefa: A youthful cinematic blend that wins the bet

 

 

El Hareefa movie that was released in Egyptian cinemas on January 3, managed to top the Egyptian box office amassing revenues of 8 millions L.E.

 

The Action-drama movie  follows Maged a football player who collides with his new friends, who are football players from a lower class he has become part of due to his new circumstances. They form together a football team who competes to win El Hareefa football tournament to receive the award worth one million L.E.

 

 

Nour El-Nabawy co-stars with former professional footballer Ahmed Hossam Mido in his first cinematic appearance. Beside El-Nabawy the movie stars Nour Ehab, Ahmed Ghozzi, Mahraganat singer Kozbara, Khaled El Zahabi, Selim El-Turk and Bayoumi Fouad as a guest star among others.

 

“El Hareefa” movie is by all means a unique cinematic experience that proved it is not with big names, nor with massive production but the key factor is how to meet the audience taste, expectations and gain their admiration.

 

El Hareefa movie managed simply and smoothly to destroy all the normal cinematic stereotypes.

 

 

None of the movie actors is a box office star nor has a vast cinematic experience all what they have a true talent, high sense of humor and strong believe in their youthful cinematic experience. 

 

 

The film has an amusing youthful spirit as we are watching a movie completely made by youth the actors, the scriptwriter and the director. In 1997 Ismailia Rayeh Gay movie represented a turning point in the Egyptian cinema placing young actors in the forefront of the Egyptian box office and in 2024 we see history repeating itself through “El Hareefa” that has radically changed the cinematic equation through housing incredible performances to a group of first time actors in cinema except for Nour El Nabawy who participated before inً Khamas Gawlat movie, Abdelrahman Mohamed who performed in Mr X and Selim El Turk in Maali Mama movie. The chemistry between El Hareefa football team players was palpable in the movie. Each one of them has his own capabilities but they all share one common factor which is the smooth and natural acting performance.

 

 

After a string of impressive performances in a number of television dramas, Nour El Nabawy lands his first leading movie role in “El Hareefa” movie which is scripted by Eiad Saleh and directed by Raouf El Sayed.

 

First we have to differentiate between the talented actor and the star. All the stars are talented but not all the talented actors have the charisma that makes them stars and Nour El Nabawy has this charisma so he became a star after his first leading role in cinema.

 

Ahmed Ghozzi aka El Sheshtawy provided a dazzling performance to the gallant guy who is loyal to his friends, supports them through thick and thin and always have their back. Ghozzi paid attention to every single detail about El Sheshtawy character, how he speaks, his facial expressions, his look so he made us all delve inside this rich character.

 

The major surprise in this movie is the mahraganat singer Kozbara who gave an impressive performance despite being his first acting experience . Kozbara performance was just natural, simple and he was much in the character maybe because Kozbara character in real resembles much Heta character in the movie.

 

Khaled El Dahaby embodied simply and to the point without any kind of overacting El Nos character this young guy whose main dream is to be a singer not a football player but he shares the same dream of winning El Hareefa football tournament with his friends. 

 

The stand-up comedian Abdelrahman Mohamed glowed more in his second role in El Hareefa movie. Mohamed has a terrific sense of humor and knows how to make the audience laugh. One of the key factors of a good comedian is the one who knows how to pay attention to what we describe as the comic time that refers to the use of pacing and rhythm to enhance the comedic effect of a joke. When it comes to comedy, timing is key to making the material come alive on screen and Mohamed understands this well and he learnt it from his work as a stand-up comedian.

 

Selim El Turk worked before in a couple of movies as a kid. Pertaining to his performance in El Hareefa it was nice, natural and to the point. El Turk portrayed perfectly the young guy who is torn between his responsibility towards his family and his passion for football. Ehab is the female lead and her presence added a lovely romantic line to the movie.

 

Ahmed Hossam Mido exceeded my expectations in his first acting experience maybe because he played the role of El Hareefa team coach Shalash which is similar to his real character.

 

In his debut feature film director Raouf El Sayed proved that he has his own fresh cinematic vision. He lead all the actors to provide the best performance they can provide. El Hareefa casting was great, El Sayed brilliantly casted every actor in the most suitable role for him. 

 

The scriptwriter Eiad Saleh managed in his debut feature film to create an amusing youthful cinematic blend. Saleh proved that you don’t need to write a complicated script to make a successful movie, all what you need is a credible script, well drawn characters and a harmony between all the drama lines and that exactly what Saleh did.