Fresh off its North American premiere at TIFF, Eagles of the Republic proves that director Tarik Saleh and actor Fares Fares are one of cinema’s most potent pairings; part political firebrand, part pop-thriller dream team. In their latest collaboration, they pull viewers into a dazzling yet treacherous Cairo, where the glitz of celebrity collides with the machinery of state politics as actor George Fahmy (Fares Fares) is coerced into fronting a propaganda film which goes awry. Pretty deep stuff! With Saleh’s razor-sharp eye for power games and Fares’s magnetic, slyly vulnerable performance as a movie star trapped in a role he can’t refuse, the film hums with both style and menace, exactly the kind of bold storytelling that makes TIFF buzz.
JG: Tarik, you’ve called this film part of your ongoing exploration of Cairo’s power structures. How did you want Eagles of the Republic to expand or shift the lens compared to The Nile Hilton Incident and Cairo Conspiracy?
Tarik Saleh: It felt like going up an elevator in a building where you’re finding out that there’s constantly a floor above you. Especially doing Cairo Conspiracy, it felt like I was up on the highest floor because you’re dealing with religious power and state security. But then you realize, of course, there is one floor above that, and that’s the house of the president and the army. In Egypt, the entertainment industry is so powerful. People don’t think about it, but I mean, first of all, the fact is that Egypt is the Hollywood of the Middle East. There are one billion people who speak Arabic, and they all watch Egyptian cinema and television. That’s one thing. But then there is another aspect. You have this very influential country in the middle of the Middle East, Egypt, that has a population of 120 million. And most of those people can’t read or write, so television and cinema mean something else to them. It’s the way they consume media, right? And so the film becomes very, very powerful. And of course, the people in power want to control that medium.
JG: At the heart of the movie, it really is a propaganda story, but also the seduction of power and wealth. How did you both collaborate to make sure that the thriller elements never overshadowed the deeper political commentary?
Tarik Saleh: In terms of the script, there was this shift. When I write a script, it has to surprise me as a writer, too. If I’m not surprised, I don’t believe that the audience will truly be surprised. And so, I did not know the ending when I started writing it. Once I realized what the last act was going to be, I realized that when it becomes about raw power, it’s always about violence in the end. As far as the thriller element, I’m a genre filmmaker. I believe in genres. For a lot of people, that’s a curse word. But for me, the greatest films in history are genre films. The rules are there so that you have this contract with the audience that you can then break and surprise. Both Fares and I always have this understanding that what we do has to be true. It has to be true. It has to be emotionally true.
Fares Fares: There’s not really a thought-out plan. It’s just that we have the material and we want to make it as true as possible and explore the characters as much as we can. And then there’s the thriller element, there’s the political element and all that stuff, but on the day and when we shoot, it’s all about making it real.
JG: Fares, George is such a layered character. Charming, self-absorbed, but ultimately vulnerable when the regime asserts control. How did you approach finding the balance between his charisma and his fragility?
Fares Fares: I don’t know, it’s so hard to talk about stuff like that. You read the script and you think about the character, all the layers about the character and everything, and then you do that a lot. When you start filming, it’s just a gut feeling and, hopefully, you’ve explored everything before you get to set. Because if you think about the plan when you’re actually shooting, you’re going to lose a lot. It was a challenge. Before we started filming, it was a challenge with the character to make him likable because, like you say, he’s self-absorbed and charming. In the end, we spoke so much about the script and all those problems that we had with it. I can’t even remember what we landed on for how to make him more likable and all that stuff. I mean, he still helps his neighbours in a way. It’s hard. It’s difficult.
Tarik Saleh: We talked about this the other day. With George as a character, he is high status; he thinks he has a lot of power. And one difficult thing is that when he realizes that he doesn’t have that power, that’s a very vulnerable place to be. A lot of people in power will never admit to being wrong; they will never admit to failing or being afraid. In today’s world, I’m especially interested in this very shallow idea of masculinity. The idea that you should be some sort of Superman, you should be a superhero, you should be so tough. You should wake up at 4:00 in the morning and take an ice bath, and then you should work out for two hours and go out into the world and never show vulnerability. I think that one thing that I really like about George is that he is vulnerable when he is being exposed. Because he is put in a position of power. It’s not that he has strived to be powerful. He had been placed on a pedestal by the fact that people love him and project their dreams on him. He’s trying to use that power to help people whom he loves. Now, that help turns into something else, and that’s not his intention. And then to see a man who is afraid, to me, is actually very healing. I know it sounds strange, but I actually find it to be something that I miss a lot when I watch films, especially genre films, where you see real fear.
JG: Fares, George’s arc seems to suggest that even the most confident star can’t outshine the machinery of authoritarian control. Was it unsettling or liberating to play someone who slowly realizes he’s not the main character of his own story?
Fares Fares: I wouldn’t say liberating. Unsettling. No, not really that either. George is a very rich character to play, and I would say it was satisfying. In the end, when we watched the film and we saw that it worked, that was a satisfying feeling. Now, on the day of filming, it’s all about what we were filming that day, rather than just being in the moment. Of course, I have the whole arc in my head and where to go or I am and all that stuff, but I wouldn’t think too much about it because George wouldn’t think that about himself, like he’s being played by someone else.
Tarik Saleh: I must say that the relationship between George and Dr. Mansour is very much like the relationship between a director and an actor. Dr. Mansour is exposing George to the truth in a world where everyone lies and everyone is constantly lying. Dr. Mansour demands the truth. And that’s what you do as a director. You’re constantly looking for the truth. Is this real? That is my only job. Do I believe what I see? You know, and it’s both an easy and a difficult job. I will say the most difficult thing is when you’re lying to yourself.
In this particular film, when you have actors like Amr Waked and Fares Fares doing scenes like that together, it feels like Christmas Day for a director because you have a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. It’s quite satisfying for me to be able to accelerate scenes with them. That was extremely satisfying. And I have to mention Zineb Triki and Lyna Khoudri, who are also very good players. I think one of my favourite moments, for example, is the breakup scene in the hotel room between Suzanne and George, where he tries to question her. Even as a director and a writer, I believe her when she says she doesn’t know. She didn’t know anything. She doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And then just moments later, down in the lobby, I’m not sure that she was telling the truth up there. I think that’s acting at its best, when an actor can keep a secret even from the director.
JG: I wanted to pick up on that relationship between an actor and a director. Your collaboration goes back years. What have you learned about each other’s instincts? I guess Tarik as a director, Fares as an actor, that continues to challenge and surprise you when you work together?
Fares Fares: Well, you want to explore. You want to explore humans, that’s for sure. It’s hard because we’re also best friends. We were before we started shooting the first film, and we still are. And nowadays, it’s more like that because we have children, both of us. We used to hang out every day, like the whole time. And nowadays, we get to do it when we make the films. So, that’s our reason for making more movies.
Tarik Saleh: Yeah, to hang out. But there is trust. There is complete trust.
Fares Fares: There’s an absolute trust between the two of us that, Trust that Tarik’s right and in his direction. I know I can blindly go into a project with him because I have full trust in him.
Tarik Saleh: I’ll tell you something, because I have two hats. I’m a writer and a director. I come from an animation background, and my father is a stop-motion animator. I grew up in an animation studio. Animation is all about showing something as it feels, not what it looks like, but what it feels like. If Donald Duck is trying to go to sleep and there is water dripping from a tap, you can really see what it feels like not to be able to sleep, right?
I think that Fares has a quality also as a private person, where I can sometimes say, “Oh, that’s what it looks like to feel angry,” you know? When I write, I actually am inspired by that. I can see him in front of me when I write. One part of the process of writing the script is getting rid of Fares in my head. I’ll write with his expression in mind, but then I know that you, as an actor, will transform into the character. The challenge is actually to say, “No, no, no, now the character lives his own life, and he is very different from Fares as a person.” And that is the fascinating part, when he shows up. For example, you can look at this guy now, yes? This is what he looks like, the private Fares Fares. He lost a lot of weight for this part, and he shaved his beard. And I remember we were going to take the photos for the George Fahmy posters. That happened a month and a half before we started shooting the film. We were in Stockholm, and I remember when they had shaved your beard, fixed your hair, and you had put on your first costume. It was just like a total transformation. I was like, “Oh, wow, there he is.” George Fahmy. It’s not Fares anymore, you know?
Fares Fares: Yeah. I had to be like 20 kilos lighter on this one. And on Boy from Heaven, it was the opposite direction.
Tarik Saleh: Yes.
JG: That’s too funny. Lastly, what’s next? I’m sure there will be more collaborations.
Tarik Saleh: Oh yeah, we are always going to collaborate on different levels. Fares is also a film director. He did his first film a couple of years ago, an amazing film. And now he’s going to do his second film, so I’m trying to be involved in that. And I’m writing several new scripts where, of course, I have Fares in mind when writing those. It’s not just me and him. We are a group of people. I mean, with Pierre Aim, Roger Rosenberg and Theis Schmidt.
Fares Fares: That’s our photographer, production designer, and editor. Our team.