The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Film
El Bar

El Bar: The Trials & Tribulations of a Cabaret Worker

  • Mahy Salah EldinMohamed Ahmed Maher...
  • Drama
  • Maged El Gabaly
reviewed by
Yasmin Shehab
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El Bar: The Trials & Tribulations of a Cabaret Worker

The
Egyptian film industry’s periodical excuse to stick a majority female cast in
low cut tops and sequins rears its head once again in the form of El Bar. And while the film is as
conventional an entry into the whole prostitute/belly dancer/cabaret genre as
they come, it does buck the formula in a few tiny, welcoming ways, making it
not as awful and sexist as usual.

The
film focuses on Le Bar, a cabaret owned by a power-hungry, money-chasing woman
named Suzy (Salah El Din). She employs a number of women to dance in the club,
service the customers and generally spice up the atmosphere. The film shows the
lives of these women both in the club and outside of it, and their interactions
with the various men in their lives; sleazy bouncers, brothers, boyfriends,
corrupt policemen and poor valets.

This
film is practically groundbreaking in that not all of the girls were forced
into their line of work due to rape, physical abuse or poverty as is usually
the case in these films. One of them actually seems to enjoy herself and is
upfront about the fact that she likes the pay. In another show of diversity,
one of the girls is a lesbian who exclusively services women and isn’t treated
as a pariah or a freak of nature by the people around her.

While
neither of these points is anything but a blip in the grand scheme of things,
it’s progress and that’s always a plus. Then there’s the fact that it isn’t
quite as exploitative as most of its brethren. While it does have the usual boob, feet and ass-lingering shots, they’re not as pervasive as they usually are and the girls,
when off duty, sport more or less normal clothes; there isn’t an extreme
overdose of titillation just for the sake of it.

Despite
these positive points, the film’s story doesn’t really go anywhere. It favours
little encounters that prove a specific point over a sense of narrative or a
story arc. It also focuses on too many characters without there being much to
distinguish each person other than the label or archetype that they’ve been given,
and as a result they all get short changed.

And
while the girls working at the bar aren’t terrible actors, the mostly male
supporting cast is. The guy who’s saddled with the role of the poor,
downtrodden valet comes off especially badly. His over-the-top facial expressions turn the
crippling amount of resentment he harbours for all the rich people who
frequent the cabaret and either treat him like dirt or ignore his existence,
into a farce.

El Bar is by no means groundbreaking, even though some moments had definite
potential It’s not even one of those films that are so bad, they’re good. It’s
a shame, if you ask us; we could’ve used a laugh, intentional or otherwise.

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360 Tip

Mai El Qadi who plays Soha, one of the girls working in the bar, starred opposite Sakka in his Ramadan show Khotout Hamra as his younger brother’s fiancee. 

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