The Nile Hilton Incident review: A Cairo thriller based on a real murder case
THE setting is Egypt in 2011, but The Nile Hilton Incident takes its inspiration from classic American film noir. Lebanese-Swedish actor Fares Fares slips into Humphrey Bogart’s gumshoes to play Noredin, a world-weary detective who has seen too much of the mean streets of Cairo.
The Nile Hilton Incident
When a singer is murdered in the city’s most-expensive hotel, his first instinct is to pocket a fat role of bank notes from her purse.
But when his boss tries to sweep the killing under the carpet, his conscience begins to stir.
Noredin’s unsanctioned investigation points towards a wealthy MP, a slimy blackmailer and a sultry Tunisian femme fatale.
If you know your gumshoes, none of this will sound that surprising but Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh uses his setting brilliantly.
The plot, which is based on a real murder case, unfurls in the final days before the revolution which ousted Egypt’s military despot Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Not only does this give the drama a ticking clock, it justifies the hardboiled detective’s cynicism.
This is a world where corruption has been dripping down for decades. It makes you wonder what Marlowe was so miserable about.