Ahmed Mourad's The Blue Elephant novel has been a hit in Egypt and Arab world with a huge amount of controversy among readers from all levels of knowledge, culture and interest. Swinging between the spread success and all the criticism it faced due to the massive attraction of many readers, It managed to be always on headlines between people and of course at every book store and now it made it through to the big screen.
Marwan Hamed, one of Egypt finest directors made good choices of the actors and the settings of the scenes. The shooting seemed nice and smooth in most scenes, a bit fair and out of balance in few but mainly it went mostly good.
All actors Kareem, Nelly and the others were mostly on form giving their good performance except of Khaled El Sawy whose performance was exceptional.
The characters on screen appeared close to the author description in shape and behavior. The stylist must have studied and understood the characters well enough to apply that with such a success on their looks.
Until then the movie was going to be just Good, But it needed a sparkle to make it a Great movie according to the standards of Egyptian and Arab cinema production and driving it a step forward to the International standards.
The sparkle came from VFX team with the DOP who both did a great job reflecting Mourad's toughest scenes of the novel into a visual reality with professional touches by Hamed.
Some side notes about the dialogue, shooting and supporting characters cannot ruin the good work has been done by all the crew.
I have always had a big objection about the story ending, but for now I may leave that to myself and enjoy watching an Egyptian cinema production with such professionalism and high standards.
it's not perfect - like anything will never be - yet it's a big step forward that we should applaud and keep our Self-flagellation on Pause!
