“Here we believe in fate,” Tareq (Alexander Siddig) tells Juliette (Patricia Clarkson). In this film, what is fate, what is circumstance and what is choice is debatable, and is left to the audience to decide.  This is a small and quiet film, but the two compelling lead actors kept me interested in the fate of the characters.

Juliette (Clarkson) takes a trip to Cairo to visit her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), who works for the United Nations. But when the U.N. sends Mark to Gaza, to help deal with trouble in a refugee camp, Mark asks former employee Tareq (Siddig) to meet Juliette at the airport. Juliette spends a little time with Tareq, who is polite and respectful, as well as easy on the eyes. She wanders around Cairo in Western attire and is harassed, attends some dull U.N. functions with wives of diplomats and is bored, and then seeks out Tareq. Juliette frequently talks to her husband on the phone and even attempts a visit. She appears to love and miss her husband, but the more time she spends with Tareq, the happier she seems. They tour, eat and smoke a hookah pipe. But does emotional infidelity “count?” If so, who really pays the price?

The events in Cairo Time, and Cairo itself are seen through the eyes of Juliette. So we only see a little bit of the poverty, unequal treatment of women and a lot of the beauty of the pyramids and the Nile. But perhaps a woman who has trouble clearly seeing a country she visits would also have trouble clearly examining her own life.  Writer/director Ruba Nadda’s film moves at a leisurely pace. Cairo Time is all about the details, the texture and the characters. It is the small moments in this film that may change the characters’ lives.

I like the main characters, but there are a few flaws and inconsistencies in the writing here. Juliette seems so naïve and uninformed that she appears stupid. Despite the fact that her husband works for the U.N. in Cairo and that she writes for a magazine, she appears to know very little about the culture or the political situation. Juliette is obviously intelligent, but her actions are questionable. She walks around Cairo alone in revealing outfits and seems surprised at the reaction her blonde hair and modern attire elicit. She boards a bus to Gaza to make a surprise visit to her husband without ever considering the consequences. She seems surprised when Israeli soldiers stop the bus to check passports, although it is unclear if she knows they are Israeli soldiers or even knows the geography or political landscape of the this part of the world.  At one of the U.N functions, Juliette is befriended by Kathryn (Elena Anay), whose boyfriend works for the U.N. Kathryn is worldly and fun. Kathryn takes Juliette to visit Bedouins in the desert, and I enjoyed these scenes and the conversation between the two women. I was looking forward to seeing more of this developing female friendship, but then Kathryn disappears for the rest of the film.

But the actors overcome most of these problems. Clarkson and Siddig get almost all of the screen time here, and I never tired of them, especially the smoldering Siddig. Although Tareq’s attraction to Juliette despite his affection for her husband, seems somewhat out of character, Siddig makes this work. He shows Tareq’s complexities when he tells Juliette without rancor, “Underneath the façade, Cairo is still a dangerous city.” He is sexy and charming, but subtle and completely believable. His restrained performance never lacks warmth, but shows a character with a non-Western world view. When he surprises Juliette at her hotel, she asks him how long he has been waiting. “Not long at all,” he replies sincerely with a dismissive wave of his hand, “only an hour.” Clarkson takes a character that could be annoying and makes her sweet, kind and compassionate, with a touch of longing. She speaks Juliette’s lines softly and we can hear the love in her voice when she talks to her husband on the phone. When she shyly smiles at Tareq, we see the start of hesitant attraction. Siddig and Clarkson have an intense chemistry that is shown with lingering and silent looks that are as sexy as any explicit love scene. Their romance is happening on the inside, and these compelling actors had me hooked.

Some will certainly find the pace of Cairo Time too slow and the stakes too low. But I enjoyed the emotional complexities of the characters and the view of Cairo in this 90 minute film. I found the end of the film only partially satisfying and I still had questions about the motivations of these characters. But as Tareq says about many things in Cairo, “It’s complicated.”

Cairo Time. Directed by Ruba Nadda. Patricia Clarkson (Juliette Grant),Alexander Siddig (Tareq Khalifa), Elena Anaya (Kathryn) and Tom McCamus  (Mark). IFC Films, 2019-2010.

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

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