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Rating:
Summary: Boldly courageous, realistic, yet what a love story
Review: After viewing all three movies of the Alexandria Trilogy by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine (or Yusuf Shahin), I was compelled to seek more of his offerings. I got two, "The Emigrant" and "The Other Son." While The Emigrant was OK, it was not as good as the Trilogy, particularly "Alexandria... Why," the first in the trilogy, and then the second one, "An Egyptian Story". But then I watched "The Other Son," and oh, glory, Chahene's cinematic magic was back full force!

This is a marvelous film, boldly courageous, realistic, and in the center a wonderfully cheesy ;-) love story with a befitting ending. OK, I said cheesy, but surely you know that I meant: beautiful, heart-warming, makes you laugh and cry and root for the young couple all the way to the end. Chahine deserves a lot of credit for his denunciation of terrorism, as well as the look he offers into the whys and whatfors of the mindset that enables the mass-manipulators of this world to tap into the soul of the disenchanted and use them as pawns in their greedy games of amassing more power.

Adam, a favored son of an American mother of Egyptian origins, and an Egyptian father who loves America for the free lifestyle it had offered while he'd been studying in the U.S.A, falls in love with Hanane, a very beautiful, spirited and idealistic young Egyptian journalist. Actually to say that Adam falls in love with Hanane is to simplify his feelings (so skillfully presented by the filmmaker!); from the first instant Adam and Hanane's eyes meet each other at the Airport (I think it's supposed to be Cairo Airport, though it might be Alexandria as well, I am not sure, I could not pay attention for I was lost in the romance of the moment), they know that this is IT, their soulmate for eternity.
Alas, Hanane's lower social standing does not match the plans Adam's parents have for their son. Further, Adam's mother is extremely jealous and possessive of her child's affections. As a plot within the plot, there is Adam's parents' scheme to bilk the Egyptian government of a very large amount of money, by concocting a phony architectural project, an expensive complex containing buildings that will honor the three major religions, in the Egyptian desert. So, when Hanane and Adam get married despite his parent's objections, and intrepid journalist Hanane has the temerity of digging into his parents' scheme and then making it public, the wheels of vengeance begin to turn against them.

As in the Alexandria Trilogy, this film too contains excellent locale shots, characters that are at once cartoonish yet realistic and quite likeable, the cartoonish aspect adding to the their believability as their innerselves, their motivations, are keenly explored to help us understand them, and this editorial descriptions, too, is correct: >>>...exposes the links between power and fanaticism and denounces intolerance in this bitter portrait of globalization and terrorism.<<<<

Enjoyable, informative, and touching. I'd recommend it greatly.