Eagles of the Republic

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Tarik Saleh offers an interesting concept exploring of Egypt's corrupted government system and a character situated in the moment of it. Unfortunately despite some really good moments, the movie never really found it's footing properly because of its unbalanced writing and characters that you don't really feel connected towards.

Throughout, Saleh's direction on the tone, atmosphere and setting is good, as it helps establish the setting and where the characters are at. The camerawork and production designs are good, alongside with the performances from the cast as there isn't a single bad performance from anyone.

As mentioned, the writing and concepts is good and there are some good themes and writing elements that Saleh explores. However, the issue is that Saleh doesn't seem to know where to find it's powerful moment and as a whole, the writing feels thin, aimless, and unfilling. Where certain concepts felt underdeveloped and uninteresting. Alongside with the characters as many of the characters felt uninteresting and at times, underdeveloped. Where you don't feel a sense of realism nor an interest engagement that Saleh would have wanted. Undeniablely, the message is clear but it's goal didn't really hit the spot.

Alongside with some decent dialogue and music choices, there are some good sound designs that helps establish the tension and the setting of Egypt. But there are some strange editing choices and pacing issues that are plagued throughout the movie.

Overall, Tarik Saleh has good intentions but the end result becomes forgettable and uninteresting.

I watched this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.

I really wanted to like it, as there is a story to be told about the military hold on Egyptian Media through the United Group, the lack of freedom of speech, and how the film industry is being dragged into telling the narrative of the military.

However, the characters in this movie are not well developed, they lack depth. Apart from Dr. Mansour, who is the Presidents right hand and making sure that the production agrees to the president, there were no other strong appearances. The story line leaves with a lot of questions, and it is not clear if Tarik Saleh is intentional about some choices or throwing things at the wall and just seeing what sticks: why is the choice of the main character Coptic? What role does religion play? Why is there a 60s/70s flair at the start of the movie? Why the attempted assassination and the storyline after ?

Further, the casting choice is unclear. The movie is telling a very Egyptian story, however the cast is predominantly non-Egyptian and unable to speak in an Egyptian dialect. In a Q&A session after the movie, Tarik Saleh was asked specifically about this, and unfortunately answered that the majority are Egyptian: a defensive and untrue answer..

Eagles of the Republic is one of those movies you walk out really enjoying, but realizing as the days passed by that it wasn't quite as profound as it makes itself out to be.

It's a fantastic concept; Georges Fahmy (Fares Fares) is a movie star akin to Omar Sharif (another Coptic Christian and real life Egyptian superstar). He's invited to play President El Sis in a in what is essentially a propaganda film, a role he does not want to, but is ultimately compelled to take.

The film explores the themes of power, celebrity, cultural identity, and corruption, with many interesting characters and spinning plates. There are a lot of really fun, intriguing people here and part of the film's biggest issue is that we never get to spend much time with them outside of Georges.

The film seems to really wow us with big, emotional moments. I know what it's trying to get across; that Georges eventually has an inflated sense of ego because he begins to "feel" like the President, but it isn't communicated particularly well.

The film has some fun twists and turns, but rather than feel like we're walking deeper and deeper into a web of conspiracy, we sort of sleep walk into it. I genuinely didn't see the film's biggest and frankly, best, moment coming, but it also didn't feel earned either.

Overall, I like this film's cultural authenticity and boldness with critique; not overbearing but effective in communicating its politics. It's a great looking film that felt higher budget than it probably was. But, it was lacking in narrative tightness and exploring more of the wide cast of characters.