Sweden’s Oscar entry ‘Cairo Conspiracy’ thrives at the French box office
Tarik Saleh“Cairo Conspiracy”, which represents Sweden in the Oscar race, has become France’s biggest (non-English) foreign language hit since Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite”. The thought-provoking film – Saleh’s follow-up to “The Nile Hilton Incident” – competed at Cannes and won the screenplay award.
An Arabic-language thriller revolving around religion, “Cairo Conspiracy” was not an easy sell on paper but it has already grossed around 3.2 million euros from more than 460,000 tickets in France since October 26. It was released Memento distribution on 207 screens, and expanded to a further 500 screens in its third week, worthy of a major French title.
“Cairo Conspiracy” currently ranks as France’s biggest (non-English) foreign language film since “Parasite” which had received over two million admissions. The performance of Saleh’s film has surpassed Park Chan-Wook’s “Decision to Leave” which also played in Cannes and came out in June; as well as Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” (220,000 tickets), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” (200,000 tickets), and Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero”, which sold 208,000 tickets for Memento Distribution.
The film stars Tawfeek Barhom as Adam, the son of a fisherman who enters the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of Sunni Islam’s power. Shortly after arriving in the Egyptian capital, the university’s highest-ranking religious leader suddenly dies, and Adam soon becomes a pawn in a ruthless struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite.
“‘Cairo Conspiracy’ has become a real sleeper hit: it’s still playing on 240 screens after six weeks!” says Alexandre Mallet-Guy, founder and CEO of Memento Distribution. The executive says it’s one of the “rare films that stays” in theaters even though there are “a plethora of films coming out in November and December.”
Mallet-Guy points out that the film’s box office score is particularly high given that the market share of art house films has declined by 30% to 40% in France. “Cairo Confidential” has also only played in its original version in French theaters, unlike Ruben Ostlund’s English-language satire “Triangle of Sadness,” which has been dubbed — and has sold more than 550,000 tickets since Sept. 28.
To promote the film, Memento Distribution positioned it as a spy thriller to downplay the religious theme and boost its commercial advertising. As a result, the film’s original name, “Boy From Heaven” became “Cairo Conspiracy”.
“We chose a title that frames the film as a suspense thriller about infiltration, in line with Saleh’s previous film, ‘The Nile Hilton Incident’ which we had also renamed ‘Cairo Confidentiel’, another very successful foreign language film we handled” , says Mallet-Guy, who joked that although both films tell very different stories, the fact that they have a similar title, the same star – Fares Fares – and Cairo as a backdrop makes it seem like Saleh was making a trilogy.” Everyone’s waiting for the third opus!” joked Mallet-Guy.
The poster, which shows believers wearing fez hats from behind, suggests that the plot is to some extent about religion, but is “interesting enough and invites the audience to penetrate a world they do not know,” said the director, who quoted recently . Espionage thrillers that have performed well in theaters in France, notably “Decision to Leave” and Dominik Moll’s “La nuit du 12”.
Memento Distribution primarily used billboards to promote the film, playing short clips in theaters during previews for films such as Cedric Jimenez’s “November” and “Triangle of Sadness.” “We were lucky enough to come out on the heels of these films, it was the perfect prelude,” observed Mallet-Guy.
Still, the film could have done even better at the French BO if Saleh and/or Fares had been able to promote it on TV or radio. Mallet-Guy says none of them were invited to participate in programs because TV and radio producers in France do not like to use translators. “When it’s James Gray for ‘Armageddon Time’ they don’t mind, but when it’s a lesser-known filmmaker or talent they do, even at Arte (the Franco-German TV channel) co-producing,” says he.
Still, Mallet-Guy says the box-office performance of “Cairo Confidential” gives him hope because it helps “break the glass ceiling for foreign-language films.” Besides ‘Parasite’ and ‘The Nile Hilton Incident’, previous foreign language hits include Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’ and Jafaar Panahi’s ‘Taxi Tehran’ which Memento Distribution also handled.
“Cairo Conspiracy” has been sold by Memento International to major territories, including North America with Samuel Goldwyn Films. The film has been selected to represent Sweden in the international feature film competition whose shortlist will be presented on December 21.