A nobody becomes somebody, then loses his mind in power's velvet trap.
A mix-up leads Ra'fat Rostum to a ministerial seat that he was never meant to have. As he successfully holds onto his office for a long time, he starts having violent nightmares and asks his office manager, Ateya, to accompany him to the North Coast in an attempt to stop the nightmares.
Acting
Zaki's haunted eyes carry entire cabinet meetings.
Direction
Seif turns bureaucratic spaces into psychological horror.
Director
Samir Seif
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Mubarak's final decade, the film's bureaucratic rot mirrored real Egyptian political stagnation. Zaki, cinema's working-class hero, playing a minister felt like national allegory.
Zaki died months after filming completed; his actual funeral procession drew millions, making his on-screen political funeral unbearably prophetic. The nightmares hit different knowing.
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