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

This
film is a graduation project mostly shot on the AUC campus. Now as any student
who’s tried to make a film knows, filmmaking is incredibly hard work; it can be
very costly, even if you’re working with a micro budget, and usually it consists
of using friends for as much free labour as possible. It’s an immensely
difficult task and requires major guts and perseverance, but having said that, Juliette’s Trousers isn’t a very good film.
And while some of its faults can be blamed on a small budget, the film’s
biggest fault is in the script and plot; two things that could have held it together
should all else fail.

The
film revolves around the idea that leggings are not trousers and should not be
treated as such. Arguing this is Tarek El Ibiary, while taking the stand for
the opposing side is his girlfriend Mona Lasheen. He disapproves that she wears
leggings with short tops; she maintains that her fashion choices are none of
his business. This is the one issue that poses a problem for them in their
otherwise blissful relationship and the film is basically a chronicle of how
Mona’s leggings brought them together then tore them apart.

Funnily
enough for a film with a central argument, it fails to make a convincing case
for either side. The characters speak in clichés and platitudes never delving
beyond the surface. Their arguments can be summed up to: leggings overly reveal
a girl’s body, and the counter argument that girls are free to wear whatever
they want. What is absolutely astounding is that not once does Mona tell Tarek
that perverts will stare at a woman no matter what she’s wearing, and that the
onus is on the harasser to stop and not on the woman to alter her lifestyle. There was clearly a concerted effort to avoid
sexist tropes but due to the film’s shallowness, they fall into many of them
anyway. For example, the justification that he is doing this because he cares
and isn’t a control freak is trotted out a few times, though this makes it no
better. The film doesn’t seem to realize that sexism is sexism no matter how
sugar coated or how well-intended that person is.

Another
problem that goes hand in hand with the aforementioned one is that the
characters are wildly inconsistent with Tarek being the number one example of
that. He fluctuates all over the place, starting out as a guy who’s idea of a
good time is watching women as they walk by – in fact that’s how he first met
Mona – only to become possessive when his friends insinuate that her leggings
are a sign of her easiness. From then on, he goes back and forth between being
mad at her for wearing them and supporting her right to wear whatever she
wants. The acting doesn’t help much either; the cast is made up of amateurs and
therefore the dialogue often sounds forced.

As
for the technical side of things, the film is for the most part, poorly shot,
lit and edited; some ‘funky’ editing tricks are liberally used, giving it an
amateur feel – but there are some commendable points nonetheless. It was
a pleasant surprise to see that even though the film revolves around leggings,
not once did the camera focus on a woman’s curves, preferring instead to use
multiple below the knee shots and guys’ reactions to convey the idea. The
filmmakers chose the anti objectification route and kudos to them for that;
this choice seemed to send a stronger message than all of the film’s dialogue.
It says that women shouldn’t be ogled at no matter what they’re wearing and
that is ultimately a very decent message to send.