Cairo Time
Cairo Time is an uncharacteristic Canadian film in that its characteristics don’t look Canadian. Like Fifty Dead Men Walking earlier this year the setting is foreign as are the principal actors. In this story written and directed by Toronto’s Montreal born Ruba Nadda, Juliette Grant (the always rock solid Patricia Clarkson) is a magazine editor about to rendezvous in Cairo with Mark (Tom McCamus) her diplomat husband for a long awaited stretch of alone time. Tareq Khalifa (Alexander Siddig) is a retired Egyptian policeman and an old friend of Mark’s through work with the UN, who gets Juliette safely cloistered in her hotel room overlooking the Nile. As Marks arrival continuously gets delayed she begins to relieve her cabin fever by exploring the local antiquity that falls under the shadows of the Pyramids but things get dicey as cultures collide. Tareq comes to the rescue and takes on the job of her daily chaperone, however as Marks arrival is repeatedly pushed back Juliette and Tareq move closer and closer. Cairo Time does a nice job of displaying a fascinating, romantic and less violent part of the Middle East in the context of a love triangle where in a totally un-sexual way, Juliette and Tareq must share the guilt of an unfaithful act towards Mark.