THE EMBASSY IS in the Building or, El-Sefara Fel-Omara, is the 120th movie in the lengthy and colorful career of Egypt’s great comedian Adel Imam. It marks his first collaboration with director Amr Arafa (Africano) and his fifth with satirical writer Youssef Maaty, following successive commercial hits like El-Tagreba El-Danmarkeya (The Danish Experiment) and Arees Men Geha Amneya (A Groom from a Security Agency). Although the movie is tailor-made for Adel Imam, its makers fell into the usual stereotypical trap in the structuring of Sherif Khairy, the character Imam plays in this ‘politically correct’ social comedy.

With renowned musician Omar Khairat’s musical score, the credits started to roll over eye-catching aerial shots of Dubai, where Egyptian petroleum engineer Khairy had been working for the last 25 years. But Maaty doesn’t take so much as a minute to tell the viewers about Khairy’s background, let alone why he left Egypt, never returned to visit for such a long time, and remained a committed, womanizing bachelor for all those years. This is why the opening scenes seemed to be ripped from older Imam action films, like Mosagal Khatar (Ex-Con), in which he seduces every younger girl in sight. For Imam, who is now in his sixties, his scenes in romancing his foreign boss’s young wife are somewhat not funny and distasteful.

When Khairy is suddenly exposed through a piece of lingerie marked with the first initials of the adulterous wife, he is immediately fired and shipped out on the first plane to Cairo. This doesn’t prevent him from picking up the Asian air hostess and inviting her to his apartment. Unbeknownst to him, the Israeli embassy in Cairo had just moved next door, which made all the other neighbors move out of the now-deserted building. Khairy finds it hard to cope with the established situation, as heavy security precautions are thrown all over the entries and exits. He then reunites with his old trio of friends, played by members of the Official Adel Imam Supporting Cast: Ahmed Rateb, Said Tarabik and Ahmed Syam. One of them suggests he must sell the apartment but it becomes an impossible task when a buyer finds out about his ‘neighbors’. Finally, his friend Helmy (Rateb), an ambulance-chasing lawyer, convinces him to file a lawsuit against the Israeli Embassy. By doing this, Khairy becomes a patriotic hero and a symbol of resistance to normalization.

El-Sefara Fel-Omara might be the only movie of the summer race that deals with current hot affairs and reflects a realistic image of the turbulent political environment. This proves that, in addition to his comedic and acting skills, Adel Imam is and will be the smartest star in the film business. On the other hand, the filmmakers successfully inject some satirical humor about the different extremists in Egyptian society; especially smooth-talking politicians and journalists that seem to dominate our daily media.

In addition to Adel Imam’s usual great performance, the supporting cast was top notch, especially Lotfy Labib who played the Israeli Ambassador and Diaa El-Marghany who was cast as an Islamic extremist. We will definitely be waiting for Adel Imam’s next Omara: Omaret Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building).

Meanwhile, More comedies will hit the rest of the summer with the release of Eyal Habeeba (Lover Boys) starring Hamada Helal, Ghada Adel and Hassan Hosny, directed by Magdy El-Hawary and written by Ahmed Abd-Allah. The film is singer Hamada Helal’s acting debut, who plays Eid Saied, a shy rising young actor who falls in love with hotshot journalist Noha (Adel) during her pursuit of a breaking story about corruption. But on their first date, he gets hit by a car and starts living the same day over and over again.

Harim Karim (Karim’s Women) is the new Mustafa Qamar romantic comedy that teams him with an elaborate cast of leading actresses including Dalia El-Beheiry, Yasmeen Abdel-Aziz and Ola Ghanem. Qamar plays the title character Karim, who gets divorced from his wife (Abdel-Aziz) and hence decides to return to old flames from his teen years for reconciliation.

Ma’alesh, Ehna Benetbahdel (Sorry, We Are Getting Screwed) will be the last gambling card for Ahmed Adam to score a cinematic success after several consecutive flops like El-Ragol El-Abyad El- Motawaset (Mediterranean Man), Howa Fee Eih? (What’s Going On?) and Film Hindy (Indian Film). Adam decides to return to the character of El-Armouty, the big-mouthed peasant he impersonated for years in the series Ser El-Ard (Land Secrets). In this spin-off movie, also written by Youssef Maaty, Adam will also play Moselhy, the son of El-Armouty, who travels to Iraq seeking work. When he arrives in Baghdad, the American invasion begins and Moselhy is declared missing. So it’s up to his father to go there to find him and to confront the American Army. He also convinces the media that he is a close friend of President Bush and can end the war with one phone call.  et