One glance at the local movie billboards of late is enough to make your head spin. Images aside, the titles have increasingly become ... Its hard to think of a single word to describe Oukal, El-Lemby, Khalty Faransa (My Aunt Faransa), Sayee Bahr (Beach Bum), Howa Fee Eih? (Whats Up?) But we can try.

Film critics call the phenomenon a comedy wave (that comes with a sneer) while enthusiasts call it youth cinema. No matter which way you choose to look at it, these films are an integral part of pop culture, and as such, warrant some serious thought. Although films are usually associated with their directors, its the screenplay writers whose words have created this strange new world with all its bizarre characters that have always aroused my curiosity.

Ex-journalist Belal Fadl is the hottest new kid on the block so hot in fact, he even turned down an offer by director Tarek El-Erian (El-Embrator, Snakes and Ladders, Tito) to pen a vehicle starring singing sensation Amr Diab.

Originally from Alexandria, 30-year-old Fadl was born and raised in Cairo. His dreams of becoming a director came crashing down when his parents (like most middle-class Egyptian parents), adamantly refused to indulge him, so he decided to join Cairo Universitys school of journalism and mass communication.

I think coincidence played a big role in my career as a journalist and a screenwriter, says Fadl, when I started writing in newspapers as an undergrad, I interviewed Rose El-Youssef journalist Galal Eissa for one of my stories. He liked my personality so much that he asked me to join his team. When I graduated in 1995, Eissa made me his right-hand man in El-Dostour weekly newspaper whose success changed journalism history. El-Dostour gave me the flavor of early success and the keys to many doors in Egyptian society, but cinema was still my dream.

Yet under fire from the group who calls itself the cultural elite, as Fadl puts it, El-Dostour lasted only two years and Fadl was forced to move from one newspaper to the next.

Ahmed Helmy in Saye’e Bahr

They criticized the paper for its new style of spicy journalism and attractive headlines. Its the same bunch who reigns over the film pages and over-praises certain filmmakers to the detriment of others. I, for instance, think the late Radwan El-Kashef was not an important director. His El-Saher (The Magician) with Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz was artistically and dramatically weak. He wanted to say that the only thing on the mind of the poor is sex, which isnt true.

Fadls ideas about Dawoud Abdel-Sayeds directing talents are equally unflattering. I believe hes a far better screenwriter than he is a director. El-Abwab El-Moghlaqa (Closed Doors), which I think is at best a mediocre film selling very dangerous social values, received many national awards only because writer-director Atef Hatata said it was good. If you watch these movies and compare what you see to the rave reviews they got, youll understand what I mean, says Fadl. Many screenwriters of my generation are shocked at how negative the media coverage of our work is. But Im, not because I understand the reasons. To the film industry, were like intruders who dont play the game by their rules to become their protégés. Well, I refuse to do that. All I care about are the six and nine oclock shows. The audience laughing as they watch one of my films is enough for me.

Fadl debuted with Harameya Fee KG2 (KG2 Thief, 2002) with Karim Abdel Aziz and Hanan Turk, the film which kick-started director Sandra Nashaats career in feature filmmaking and made LE 10 million at the box office.

I remember reading books about writing screenplays when I was still at school. But I got the best advice from late director Salah Abou Seif who told me When you write forget the theories you read in books. The second push came from actor Salah El-Saadany who liked the folkloric sense of humor in my journalistic writing. At that time, I was script-doctoring TV series with big names for very little money, but I was learning a lot in return.

Fadl also explains that film directors and even producers have a lot to say about the final version of the script. Producers, especially, ask writers to inject a belly dance sequence here, a love scene there or even a fist-fight to make sure the movie appeals to every possible segment of society. Commercial films are found everywhere in the world. The writer first pitches the idea to both the star and the producer. When they all agree, the writing process starts. The amount of interference depends on the creative power of the writing, he says.

Mohammed Fouad and Ahmed Adam in Howwa Fi Eh?

Fadl also wrote El-Basha Telmiz (The Pasha is a Student, again starring Karim Abdel Aziz) which made LE 7 million, and Sayee Bahr, with Ahmed Helmy, which raked in LE 8 million. Both Karim and Ahmed are the best stars suitable for my writings because their moderate box-office pull proves theyll have long, stable careers.

His latest, Khalty Faransa, has been criticized to death. It tells the story of the title character (Abla Kamel) a professional sharshouha (party-crasher and baladi female bully), but Fadl insists that the movie was misinterpreted. I wanted to say that some businessmen have the same qualities as lowlifes like Faransa. How else can we explain businessmen filming their own sexual escapades and showing them to others?

My efforts to catch up with Ahmed Abdallah, the brains behind Mohammed Heneidys latest offering Foul El-Seen El-Azim, were in vain. A source in director Sherif Arafas office tells me that he usually disappears after completing a script and always changes his number.

Next on my list was the notorious Sameh Ser El-Khetm, co-writer of the new Oukal, Elly Baly Balak (You Know What I Mean) and the Ahmed Adam-Mohamed Fouad flop Howa Fee Eih? The first time I spoke to Ser El-Khetm on the phone, he said hed just returned from the funeral of a relative of Oukal co-writer Mohamed Nabawy. I didnt buy it. Two days later my suspicions were confirmed. I called him again and the person who picked up the phone was none other than Nabawy (not sounding like anybody had died) as he told me that Ser El-Khetm was in Kuwait with producer Ahmed El-Sobky for the premier of Oukal.

Sameh and I go way back. I studied law and he studied [believe it or not] petroleum engineering, reminisces Nabawy. Actors Mohammed Saad, Mohammed Heneidy, Hany Ramzy and Khaled Saleh (co-star of Tito) were all part of the clique. Following the sweeping box-office success of the two El-Lemby films (LE 57 million in total) they decided to invent a new character for Saad to portray, the infamous Oukal.

Karim Abdel Aziz (second from left) in El Basha Telmiz

When I watched it, Oukal seemed like a copy of El-Lemby, more along the lines of El-Lemby Reloaded than anything new: the same character nuances, and the same stale jokes with Saad playing Oukals grandmother to boot.

But as I was just about to find out, theres a reason for the repetitiveness. We write the jokes collectively with Saad, says Nabawy. I remember finishing Oukal throughout last Ramadan.

It shows.

The formula doesnt seem to be working this time. Oukal made LE 7.5 million the first week, but sales dropped by 50 percent the second week. It seems, however, that all those involved in the movie are in denial. Our object, concludes Nabawy, is to deliver some laughs without any sexual innuendo. The movie was so successful that it is played in midnight shows, and super midnight shows starting at two in the morning. This year, a new show starting at 4 oclock was invented. Its called the ghost show.