Exiled Filmmaker Tarik Saleh Dares to Name Egypt's President in 'Eagles of the Republic’

Tarik Saleh’s latest film, Eagles of the Republic, was the sole African title in the official competition at the Cannes film festival this year. The political satire stars regular Saleh contributor Fares Fares as George Fahmy, a beloved Egyptian superstar.

The high-stakes thriller, which also showed at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and will premiere in European theaters starting November 12, marks the conclusion of Saleh’s heralded Cairo trilogy, which started with The Nile Hilton Incident in 2017 and continued with Boy From Heaven in 2022. Though all the films are set in Cairo, not all scenes were filmed there —Turkey provided a practical substitute.

Saleh, who is of Swedish Egyptian origin, was prepping The Nile Hilton Incident — based on a real scandal — when he was exiled from the country and prohibited from returning. The film’s critical portrayal of the police was deemed unacceptable.

Instead of balking, Saleh has since doubled down — Eagles of the Republic features Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as a prominent character. Naturally, it is unlikely to be welcomed in Egypt. However, the film has been selected to represent Sweden in the best international feature category at the Oscars. This marks a second for Saleh, as his previous, Boy From Heaven, also received the same honor. 

Saleh, who has also directed episodes of hit Hollywood television shows like Westworld and Ray Donovan, speaks with OkayAfrica about telling Egyptian stories, wrapping up the trilogy, and speaking his truth regardless of personal and professional cost.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does Eagles of the Republic fit within your Cairo trilogy, and what is the connecting thread amongst these films? 

Places are like people. Every city is like a person to me, especially these big cities. Stockholm is a very nervous person who wants to be liked. Cairo is like New York in [the sense] that it doesn’t give a fuck what you think about it. In Arabic, Cairo means ‘the conqueror,’ so it is a state of mind. People come to be crushed. You think you can control it, but the city will ultimately control you. 

So these films are about control?

On the deepest level, the connection is that all three films are about men who try to control their destiny and fail. They are bent until they break. The trilogy also deals with the institutions of power. The first film is about a policeman whose uncle is the head of the corrupt central police station in Cairo. At one point, he needs to choose whether to be a policeman or a crook. He chooses to be a policeman, but you cannot be a policeman in Egypt. 

Boy From Heaven is about a young man who comes from the village looking for an education. He is admitted into this institution, which is the religious center for power not only in Egypt but in all of Sunni Islam. On the other side of the street is the headquarters of state security. There is always a power struggle between the two institutions. They try to respect each other, but when the Grand Imam dies, the state tries to control who will become the next guy. When I created Boy From Heaven, I thought I was at the highest level of power in Egypt, but soon realized there is another floor upstairs. That floor is the government, in this case represented by the president and the army. 

What specifically about this higher floor or political world interested you?

It was interesting to look at the relationship between the military and the entertainment industry. The film industry in Egypt serves the same function; it provides entertainment for the entire Arab world. A lot of people speak Arabic, so that is a huge market. The industry has a long legacy, and it is organized in terms of studios and star systems like Hollywood. I always tried to surprise myself while writing because I believe that is the only way to surprise an audience. At the same time, I am steeped in genre. I believe that what genre provides is a contract between me and my audience. I communicate with them by saying, “You know this. You have seen this, but I am still going to surprise you.”

Can you say more about the political context?

The Egyptian army owns 30% of the economy. They run the economy through a company, which means ‘The United’, and they do pretty much everything except defend the country. They sell eggs, make shoes, produce film and television, all kinds of business. The army runs the country like a company, and all these generals are fighting amongst themselves. At the top is the OG, el Sisi. Then there are generals with ambitions of taking his place, and that’s a real concern. 

Let’s talk about the collision with reality. This film is set in el Sisi’s Egypt, and his specter is very much present as a pivotal character. What informed this choice?

I would attribute this choice to your generation, and here’s why. I’m 53, and I grew up on films that were set in fake worlds — an unnamed country in Africa, or a film in Russia where everyone speaks English with accents. Since your generation has access to everything, you sense it immediately if I'm being inauthentic. You could conceivably make a remake of this film in America about a Hollywood studio doing a biopic of a sitting president and invent a fictional one because power changes hands every four years. However, in Egypt, we have a 'Pharaonic system' where Sisi will be president until he dies, and that's the fixed reality. Similarly, if I made a film set in Russia with a fictional President Igor, everyone would know I meant Vladimir Putin—he's been in power since the late nineties. The audience would inevitably ask, 'Why don’t you mention him?' The permanence of these political situations meant I was essentially forced to use real people. At the same time, I don’t want to assume things about Sisi, so in a way I keep him at a distance in the film. He is physically there, but we don’t know what he is thinking at all.

You made a bold choice, which raises questions about censorship and finding the audience. What do you think about these controversies?

I cannot go back to Egypt. I have been a persona non grata for about ten years now. Of course, I have family there and would love to go back. I love Egypt. It is one of my favorite places and I consider it my second home. People ask me if it is worth it, and my answer is absolutely not. It is absolutely not worth it, but I had to do it anyway. As an artist, I have a rule that I will tell the truth. If I am to lie, then I would rather not do it. 

What is the truth in this case? Is there an objective truth for Egyptians, or is the film your perception of it?

Today, truth is such a loaded word because we are in a time where lies are constantly delivered from the highest offices, and we have to accept the bombardment. Everyone knows it is a lie, even the supporters, but they are okay with that. What is ‘truth’ if we live in a post-truth world? I am not going to censor myself and will follow this character to the very end. I think about how the main character in this film is lying all the time, to himself and the people around him. But he is honest with his emotions, and that is the contradiction. The film is about truth, lies, and propaganda. I believe a lot of films we see today are propaganda. I worked in Hollywood, so I know. To be an artist is to examine the emotional truth of what it is like to be human, whether that emotion is anger or fear, or joy. Films try to avoid that now because people are afraid of these feelings, and they just want to escape. 

Is there freedom in presenting this film this way, and does it come from you being persona non grata in Egypt?

This is not a nice answer, but it is true. Freedom for me comes from the success of the two previous films. Every film has given me carte blanche because they have made money for people. I know that I have a cinema audience, especially in France, Sweden, and Spain, where these films do very well at the box office. So basically, I am allowed to tell my stories. People say to me, “Oh, you are a brave filmmaker,” and I say No, I have an EU passport. We still have freedom of speech in Europe, at least for now. I know people who live in Egypt and are telling their stories and are willing to pay the price for it. They are the brave ones. 

So, you aren’t interested in courting controversy for the sake of it?

The most controversial element in my work is the audacity to shift the center of the universe away from America. I aim to show that people in Cairo are not merely victims: they possess their own powerful film industry, mega-stars, and a leader who dominates. My aspiration is not to make a film only about Egypt, but a story about a movie star forced to portray the sitting president. While the specifics are Egyptian, the culture of fear, complicity, and censorship is a universal theme, easily understood anywhere, from America to France.