''Boy from Heaven'' (), released in most English-speaking countries as ''Cairo Conspiracy'', is a 2022 Arabic-language

political thriller film Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

directed by Swedish filmmaker

Tarik Saleh Tarik Saleh (; born 28 January 1972) is a Swedish television producer, animator, publisher, journalist, and film director. He was born in Stockholm to a Swedish mother and an Egyptian father. He is most known for his Cairo-trilogy starring Fa ...

. The film is a co-production between Sweden, France and Finland. It had its world premiere on 20 May 2022 at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

. Saleh was awarded Best Screenplay, and the film received the

François Chalais Prize The François Chalais Prize ( French: ''Prix François Chalais'') is awarded at two main events, the Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film fe ...

at Cannes. It was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the

95th Academy Awards The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonl ...

but was not nominated.

Plot

Adam, the son of a fisherman from a village near El Manzala, accepts an offer to study at the prestigious

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt. Shortly after his arrival, the

Grand Imam of al-Azhar The Grand Imam of al-Azhar (), also known as Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar (), is a prestigious and a prominent official title in Egypt and the Islamic world. The current Grand Imam is Ahmed el-Tayeb, who assumed the role on 10 March 2010. The Grand ...

suddenly dies and a power struggle to replace him ensues. The

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(security service) strives to install sheikh Beblawi, but he has two competitors: neutral sheikh Negm, who is blind, and a

Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...

sheikh Durani. Adam makes friends with Zizu, who is an informer for Colonel Ibrahim from the NSA. Zizu is soon killed, and Adam tries to help solve his murder by working for Ibrahim. He infiltrates a group of extremists and gathers information about them, but he learns that they had no involvement with the murder. Once the extremists realise his role, they attempt to kill Adam, but Ibrahim stops them and forces their leader to quit his position as Durani's assistant and turn it over to Adam. Sheikh Negm turns himself in to the NSA and claims that he killed Zizu. The NSA is forced to arrest him despite knowing that he is not guilty. While doing menial tasks for Durani, Adam discovers that he has an illegitimate child, which disqualifies him. Sheikh Beblawi is elected Grand Imam. Ibrahim's superior, Sobhi, orders him to kill Adam, revealing that NSA murdered Zizu too. Ibrahim is shocked and tries to help Adam to escape, but he is captured. Sobhi attempts to pressure Adam into confessing that he murdered Zizu. Ibrahim too gets arrested, but he manages to persuade General Sakran to arrange a meeting between Adam and Negm: Negm knows about NSA's role in Zizu's murder and plans to reveal it to the media during the trial; Ibrahim thinks that Adam can persuade Negm to reconsider. Adam succeeds and is let go. Adam returns to his home village wearing al-Azhar's signature turban. He thanks his village imam, but is unable to say what he has learnt at the university. In the final scene of the film he joins his father in the fishing boat.

Cast

Production

The film was shot primarily at the

Süleymaniye Mosque The Süleymaniye Mosque (, ) is an Ottoman imperial mosque located on the Seven hills of Istanbul, Third Hill of Istanbul, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent () and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan. An ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey.

Release

The film had its world premiere on 20 May 2022 at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the

. It was released in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia as ''Cairo Conspiracy''.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads, "Although it may not fully unlock the promise of its tension-rich setting and premise, ''Cairo Conspiracy''s strong performances and sophisticated script offer solidly satisfying compensation". According to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigned a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 14 critics, the film received "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

The film was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the

, and made the December shortlist.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boy from Heaven 2022 films 2022 thriller films 2020s political thriller films 2020s Arabic-language films 2020s French films Films directed by Tarik Saleh Films set in Cairo Swedish political thriller films French political thriller films Finnish political thriller films Films shot in Istanbul Films scored by Krister Linder