Yomeddine

A.B. Shawky’s film is an unusual road movie, a technically crude but emotionally powerful dramedy in which a leper and an orphan travel the length of Egypt in search of their families. Rady Gamal is Beshay, whose father dropped him off at a leper colony many years before and never returned. Although his face is terribly scarred and his limbs somewhat deformed, he ekes out a living scrounging for scraps in rubbish dumps and transporting them for resale in his donkey-drawn cart. When his wife dies, however, Beshay decides to leave the colony and search out his father. Obama (Ahmed Abdelhafiz), a 10-year-old orphan, sees Beshay departing and stows away in his cart, hoping to find his own family too. Over the course of their long journey the pair naturally bond, experiencing kindness along the way (as when they fall in with helpful beggars) and prejudice as well (fellow passengers on a train try to eject them out of fear). There are moments of joy as the two get to know one another, but also painful episodes, such as when Obama suddenly falls ill or their donkey collapses. And there is frequent criticism of a governmental bureaucracy that does little to help the country’s forgotten poor. A touching portrayal of an unlikely friendship, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)