We all know that any literary work will follow one of only four plotlines, but how many times can you bear to see the same one — you know, the one critics generously term ‘light comedy,’ which usually tackles a boy-meets-girl theme where nine times out of 10 the star-crossed lovers run off to a Red Sea resort and get married in the final reel?

But if box-office records are anything to go by, it appears Egyptian audiences just can’t seem to get enough of the stock characters and storylines. For cinemagoers, Eid El-Fitr is the perfect time to vent with some much-needed comedy (as are Eid El-Adha and the summer season). For filmmakers, it’s a chance to deliver some cheap laughs while launching the careers of newcomers and wannabe stars to test their box office potential.

But for all the fresh faces and this season’s attempt to bring back screen veterans, it seems all the industry is doing is churning out more of the same. Much more.

Menna Shalaby and Hend Sabry are Banat West El-Balad (Downtown Girls) in Mohamed Khan’s return to mainstream cinema after shooting his first digital film Klephty.

In this tale about marginalized Egyptians, Shalaby plays Yasmine, a hairdresser who works in a downtown beauty shop. While taking the subway, she meets Joumana (Sabry), who works around the corner, and the two instantly become close friends. The problem is that Yasmine is a pathological liar who can’t tell the truth about her work or family (even to her shy boyfriend Samir, played by Khaled Abul-Naga).

Courtesy of respective production company Montaha El-Laza

Written by Wessam Soliman, the movie also co-stars Ahmed Bedeir, Mohamed Nagaty and Ezzat Abou-Ouf, who plays the role of a cook at a Downtown restaurant.

While waiting for Banat West El-Balad, get to know Khan a bit better: The first installment of his monthly Egypt Today column appears on page 178.)

Don’t expect sophistication from the directorial debut of Sameh Abdel-Aziz and first appearance of Star Academy sensation Mohamed Ateyya on the silver screen. Abdel-Aziz has not only directed TV programs for satellite broadcasters including Dream TV and Rotana but was also behind music videos including Poussy Samir’s raunchy Hot El-No’at (Place the Dots). Ateyya has just released his self-titled debut album and a music video Ana El-Habib (I’m the Lover).

Both are controversial, if for totally different reasons: The former for sheer eroticism and the latter for claims of ripping off a Backstreet Boys song and video.

Courtesy of respective production company Orid Khola’an

Written by Khaled Gamal, the movie is a comic musical fantasy about a young man who is transported through time from 1955 to meet his kids in the year 2005. If you’ve seen Frequency (2000) starring Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel, you will notice that this isn’t exactly an original idea. After Yasmine Abdel-Aziz and May Ezz El-Din both declined, the female lead went to Hana Sheeha, with the regular appearance of Hassan Hosny, Hala Fakher and Salah Abdallah. There is also a cameo dance sequence by former Dream TV presenter and part-time actress Do’aa Hegazy who, after announcing that the pay is better, recently decided to become a belly dancer.

Behind the scenes: Ateyya’s lack of cinematic experience caused significant production problems when he insisted on wearing modern clothes even though his character came from the past. Later, he objected to getting a haircut in mid-shooting, which ruined the continuity of certain consecutive scenes.

Film fans have been cruelly subjected to Mohammed Fouad’s miserable attempts at a cinematic comeback ever since he starred in the hit comedy Ismailia Rayeh Gaay (Ismailia Back and Forth, 1997), a flick that changed the course of Egyptian cinema.

In this third collaboration between screenwriter Ahmed El-Beih and Fouad, the latter plays the role of Salah, a Police Academy dropout who pursues a singing career with the help of his friend, anchorman Walid (played by Ramez Galal).

Courtesy of Mohamed Khan Banat West El-Balad

He meets Malak (Hala Sheeha), a young businesswoman, and they conveniently fall in love, giving Fouad (a singer-songwriter-actor) the opportunity to sing her a few romantic songs. The directorial debut for Ahmed El-Badry, the movie was shot over the course of 13 weeks — on the Red Sea coast. Surprise.

After shooting Ghawy Hob (Fool for Love, co-written and co-produced by none other than Ahmed El-Beih and Mohammed Fouad), Hala Sheeha was immediately cast alongside Ashraf Abdel-Baky in the comedy Orid Khola’an (I Want a Divorce).

The movie was written by Mohamed Salah El-Zahar and directed by Ahmed Awaad of Kallem Mama (Talk to Mom) fame. As the title suggests, the film deals with the khola’an law that allows a woman to divorce her husband; it also happens to be a play on Faten Hamama’s classic film Orid Halan (I Want a Solution, 1977), which told the story of an estranged wife seeking a divorce.

Another parallel is the role played by screen legend Abdel Moniem Madbouly as an old man who gets divorced by his wife after 35 years of marriage, a role very similar to the one that the late Amina Rizk played in the original Orid Halan. Samy El-Adl, Sherif Ramzy and Intissar co-star.

Courtesy of respective production company Dars Khosoosy

Although Maged El-Kedwany garnered widespread criticism for his performance as Mohamed Heneidy’s villainous nemesis in Askar Fel Moaskar (A Soldier in Camp, 2003), director Gamal Kassem decided to give him the leading role in Gaay Fel Sar’ee (Coming in the Fast Lane).

The fairly flimsy plot, penned by Abdel-Fatah El-Beltagy, revolves around an Egyptian man who returns to Cairo to scout for a wife after working several years in a Gulf country.

Rola Mahmoud, Hassan Hosny and veteran comedian Waheed Seif co-star; look for a cameo by Karim Abdel-Aziz.

Menna Shalaby also co-stars in Montaha El-Laza (Absolutely Delicious) alongside Hanan Turk and Lebanese singer Yuri Meraqadi. Shalaby plays Mona, who is married to Ahmed (Magdy Kamel) but can’t balance her family life and professional career. After lots of interference from her close friend (Turk), Shalaby’s rocky marriage ends in divorce.

Meraqadi, who has signed a deal with Rotana Music to release his third album (the first was with EMI Arabia, the second with Alam El-Fan), agreed to co-star in the movie even though he was busy touring and recording. The filmmakers cast him in the role of Sherif, Turk’s Egyptian husband, because, like the character, Meraqadi also studied acting in London before becoming a professional singer.

The film will include a photomontage of three of his new songs in addition to another performed by Amal Maher.

Montaha El-Laza marks professional debuts for three female filmmakers: writer Shahira Salam, director Manal El-Seify (daughter of veteran director Hassan El-Seify) and producer Nihad Ramzy (distributor Mohamed Hassan Ramzy’s significant other).

The trio insisted on the title despite the objections to its “erotic insinuations” from the Board of Film Censors. et