Reviews

Cairo 678 is a story of three women of different social background who found themselves victimized of sexual harassment. The movie is important because it talks about sexual harassment in a country like Egypt and thus depicts that sexual harassment does exist in the countries that claim to be conservative.

The strongest point of the movie is it never loses its momentum. Not a single moment you will feel that the story is being pulled. The screenplay runs in full flow. The fantastic work of light/shadow and enchanting background music make it even more attractive.

Everyone acted in this film did justice to their characters. Bosra (who played Fayza) and Maged El Kedwany won the awards for best actress and actor respectably in 2008 Dubai International Film Festival. I personally liked the acting of Nahed El Sebai (who played Nelly) most. She had a comparatively smaller screen presence yet she delivered an excellent performance.

This movie is not only about Cairo, it is about every city and village where women are facing sexual harassment everyday. This movie does not promote violent reaction against harassment, it tells us to speak up against what is wrong. Kudos to Mohamed Diab and the whole unit of 678 for this masterpiece.

I guess the name suggests that it belongs to the residents of both the Sand (representing Middle East) and the Fog (USA). And the House here is not merely their house, it is their own world where the live. One can feel boring looking at the surface but I suggest any viewer should not to look at the story but to each character's mindset and the circumstances they are going through.

Cinematography and montage has worked for this movie and so is the acting. The director should have researched more about the native accent of Behrani. Most of the Kingsly's pronunciation seemed superficial i.e. an American speaking Arabic and Parsi words, but it is supposed to be an Irani Colonel speaking, right?

The movie told me to ask myself what is more important in our life, past or the present. Is it the memories that should drive us or the present circumstances?