Magdy and Sama are in their 60s and just want a quiet life in Cairo. Too bad that the retired couple’s fridge breaks down, turning their apartment into a stage on which the tragicomedies of love, loss, ageing and Al Qahr (more on that below) play out against the background of farcical bureaucracy and crumbling attitudes and value systems.
A corrupt maintenance company is also a key player in this Kafka-esque set-up for Complaint No. 713317, the debut feature film from writer-director Yasser Shafiey (short films The Dream of a Scene, Intense Practice to Improve Performance, The Man Who Swallowed the Radio), who started his career as a jewellery designer.
The movie, starring well-known Egyptian acting icons Mahmoud Hemida and Sherine, as well as Hana Shiha, and Mohamed Radwan, will world premiere in the Bright Future program of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Feb. 1.
As you can maybe already tell, the story of Complaint No. 713317 is about way more than a fridge. “What starts as a simple fridge repair drags a retired couple into an absurd battle, unravelling everything else that’s quietly broken beneath the surface,” explains a synopsis for the film. “Caught in the grip of economic duress, the couple embody an eroding Egyptian middle class struggling to make ends meet,” highlights a preview for Complaint No. 713317 on the festival website.
Orient Films is handling sales on the film from production companies Red Star Films and Misr International Films.
Complaint No. 713317 is about “what we’ve learned to live with – or without,” Shafiey shares in a director’s statement. “Phone calls, delays, empty promises, silence. What we think is a journey to repair an appliance becomes something far more painful – a fight to hold on to their dignity in a system that keeps stripping it away.”
At its core, he says Complaint No. 713317 is about “Al Qahr,” a word with no real translation in English, “or any other language,” he notes. “Not quite injustice. Not just oppression. It’s something deeper and heavier, something we know intimately in this part of the world. Al Qahr is the emotional, psychological, and social weight of being denied your most basic rights – quietly, daily, endlessly – until it becomes a way of life. It is when nothing works, and no one listens, and you are left to face it all alone.”
Concludes the filmmaker: “This film is quiet. But so is Al Qahr. It doesn’t always explode. It sits in the silence, the delays, the indifference. It’s in the resignation on people’s faces. In how they stop expecting anything better.”
THR can now exclusively reveal three clips from Complaint No. 713317.
The first teaser proves that more people don’t always make a difference when it comes to problems with household devices, even if one of them is an engineer. Oh yeah, take a breath, too, and get ready to hold the line…
The second Complaint No. 713317 clip features haggling for money, such phrases as “we are honest people,” the mention of German materials, and the realization that talking to customer service reps in person doesn’t always solve your problem. Check it out here:
Are you still holding the line? The final scene from Complaint No. 713317 offers up cups of tea, questions of conscience, and – yes, you guessed it! – more delays. The fridge may not be working, but the atmosphere is frigid. Watch the final clip from Complaint No. 713317 below.
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