Khaled El-Hagar Brings Back Egyptian Musicals with MAFEESH GHEIR KIDA

According to this article, Egyptian director Khaled El-Hagar, is in post-production with Egypt's first musical film, MAFEESH GHEIR KIDA (Nothing But That). Now, just to set the record straight, that's a lie. Admittedly, there haven't been many musicals in recent years, but nearly every classic Egyptian film from the 1940's and 50's was a musical. They had all the great singers like Om Kalthoum and Mohamed Abd El-Wahab and that's why everyone was so obsessed with them. Get it right, man!

Anyway, this new film has a fairly good cast with Nabila Ebeid, Khaled Abu El-Naga (in photo - who made an impressive crossover performance with CIVIC DUTY), Rola Mahmoud, and Ahmed Azmy. And the director Khaled El-Hagar isn't half bad. He's been called 'the Egyptian Almodovar" which seems like a major stretch to me, but his last movie HOB AL-BANAT (Girl's Love) was, albeit, quite predictable, but also fun and light in a Doris Day meets Bollywood sort of way. I'm optimistic, perhaps naively, that this next film will have some of the whimsy that makes Egyptian movies fans so nostalgic for the past.