Al Qesas captures the everyday human experience in extraordinary moments

🎥 In his latest feature, The Stories (Al Qesas), filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky ditches grand historical epics and larger-than-life heroes. Instead, he turns his lens toward the everyday citizen, the people who don’t make history, but certainly have to live through the fallout of it. Spanning several decades, the film weaves the macro into the micro. It captures entire eras of modern Egyptian history through the prism of daily routines, intimate dreams, and relationships.

The plot: Ahmed (Amir El Masry) is a young pianist dreaming of a life far beyond his current reality. He lives with his father, Ragheb (Ahmed Kamal), his mother, Fayrouz (Nelly Karim), his twin brother, Hassan (Ahmed El Azaar), and their third brother, Sharaf (Khaled Mokhtar). Ahmed’s world expands through a long-running correspondence with Elizabeth (Valerie Pachner), a young Austrian woman who becomes his anchor. As the years roll by and political tides shift, Ahmed’s path crosses with various characters who shape a sweeping narrative about love, ambition, family, and the relentless passage of time.

What we loved: The film’s true strength lies in its restrained, self-assured writing. Major historical turning points slip quietly into the narrative. Wars and socioeconomic shifts aren’t treated as textbook chapters to be explained, but rather as ripples that alter the characters’ choices, life paths, and relationships.

Shawky succeeds in crafting characters who feel like real flesh and blood rather than convenient plot devices. Because of this, their choices and evolutions feel earned and deeply moving, grounded in the textures of real life rather than melodrama. In a brilliant narrative stroke, the filmmakers use the family’s die-hard devotion to the Zamalek football club as a metaphor for national and personal heartbreak — culminating in a long-awaited, cathartic victory.

Performance-wise, El Masry delivers one of his most mature turns to date. Pachner brings an emotional depth to the story, while Kamal and Karim offer rock-solid portrayals of quintessential Egyptian parents. Karim, in particular, delivers a beautiful performance that serves as a nostalgic reminder of her finest work, Zaat.

The verdict: Shawky delivers a profoundly human film — aptly continuing the empathetic streak of his acclaimed debut, Yomeddine — about the dreams, disappointments, and bonds that warp and weather over time. It’s a story about ordinary people living through extraordinary times and a poignant reminder of how history leaves its mark on us, even when we are standing on the sidelines.

WHERE TO WATCH- Catch The Stories at VOX Cinemas (City Centre Almaza, Mall of Egypt, and Alexandria), Scene Cinemas in Cairo Festival City and District 5, Premiere Cinemas in Cima Arkan and Point 90, and Zawya Cinema. Watch the trailer on YouTube (Watch, runtime: 2:00).