Cairo Time
| Cairo Time | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ruba Nadda |
| Produced by | Shana Collier David Collins Daniel Iron Gabriel Khoury Charles Pugliese Christine Vachon Claire Welland |
| Written by | Ruba Nadda |
| Starring |
Patricia Clarkson Alexander Siddig Elena Anaya Tom McCamus Amina Annabi |
| Music by | Niall Byrne |
| Cinematography | Luc Montpellier |
| Edited by | Teresa Hannigan |
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Production
company |
Foundry Films,
MISR International Films |
| Distributed by | Cinemien, Mongrel Media, E1 Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,995,012 |
Cairo Time is a 2009 film by Canadian director Ruba Nadda. It is a romantic drama about a brief, unexpected love affair that catches two people completely off-guard. The movie won the "Best Canadian Feature Film" at the Toronto International Film Festival 2009.
Juliette is a Canadian magazine editor who arrives in Cairo for a vacation with husband Mark, a UN official working at refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. Their children have grown and Juliette is looking forward to spending more time with Mark. Delayed, Mark asks his friend—a handsome Egyptian named Tareq—to watch over Juliette. Mark is continually delayed in Gaza, during which time Juliette makes friends with Cairo locals, North American and European ex-pats like Kathryn, explores the city and the surrounding area, and finds herself falling in love with the city during her "Cairo Time".
Tareq is a regular (but not constant) companion during Juliette's extended time waiting for Mark, leading to a very close relationship between the two. While their relationship remains platonic, it is steadily headed to a stronger connection. After travelling to Alexandria with him to attend the wedding of the daughter (Jameelah) of a girlfriend from his university days (Yasmeen), she admits that she will miss him when she returns to Canada.
The two visit the Great Pyramids—something Mark had inisisted should be "just for us" on his sporadic calls to Juliette at her hotel room. Whatever change this may signify in Tareq and Juliette's growing relationship, they return to the hotel to find that Mark has finally arrived. Mark is happy to see Juliette, while she and Tareq adequately hide their sorrow over the end of their Cairo Time.
When Ruba Nadda finished writing the script for Cairo Time she showed it to producer Daniel Iron of Foundry Films. Daniel, remembering Ruba's previous feature Sabah, loved the script and decided to work with her.
Atom Egoyan gave the screenplay for Cairo Time to Christine Vachon and Charles Pugliese at Killer Films in New York in 2005. Vachon saw there was a lot of potential in the script and decided to meet Nadda with Pugliese. After meeting Nadda they wanted to get involved in the project and thereby became executive producers. Because Canada did not have co-production treaties with Egypt they needed to find a way to shoot in Egypt anyhow. Iron was introduced to David Collins of Samson Films in Ireland by Ruba Nadda. Collins met Nadda at a film festival in Mannheim and in Rotterdam and was familiar with her work. Samson decided to join the project, making it a Canada-Ireland co-production, which allowed them to shoot in Egypt.
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