Welad El-Am (Arabic: ولاد العم; English: The Cousins), known internationally as Escaping Tel Aviv, is a 2009 Egyptian film directed by Sherif Arafa and starring Karim Abdel Aziz, Mona Zaki and Sherif Mounir.[1][2][3]

Escaping Tel Aviv
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySherif Arafa
Written byAmr Samir Atef
Produced byHesham Abdel Khalek
StarringKarim Abdel Aziz
Mona Zaki
Sherif Mounir
CinematographyAyman Abu El-Makarem
Edited byDalia El-Nasser
Music byOmar Khairat
Production
company
Al-Nasr - Oscar - Al-Masah
Distributed byDiamond Art Production
Release date
  • November 13, 2009 (2009-11-13)
CountryEgypt
LanguagesEgyptian Arabic, Hebrew

Cast

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Plot

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Salwa (played by Mona Zaki) is an Egyptian woman who discovers that her husband (played by Sherif Mounir) is a Mossad agent and abducts her with her two young children to Israel.[1] Mostafa (Karim Abdel Aziz), a GIS officer is assigned to rescue Salwa and her children and bring them back to Egypt.

Production

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Among many vicissitudes with the filming was an interruption of more than three months while the National Security Agency and other government entities reviewed the script, given the movie’s centering on the intelligence services and foreign relations with Israel and other nations.

Star Karim Abdel Aziz was injured filming an action scene when he fell two floors due to the snap of a guy wire. He was hospitalized and underwent surgery on his foot, followed by physical therapy in Germany, delaying the film’s completion by another two months.[4]

Filming took eight weeks and was completed both outside Egypt (in Cape Town, South Africa and the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, the latter with the blessing of the government of Syria) and domestically (in Port Said and at Cairo’s Studio Misr and Studio Ahmos.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "'Welad El-Am': A simplistic confrontation with a reinvented enemy". Daily News Egypt. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ (18 March 2010). Joden in de schurkenrol in drakerig actiethriller, Trouw (in Dutch), Retrieved December 15, 2010 (critical review saying the movie glorifies Arabs and paints Israeli Jews as villains, just as bad as Hollywood films painting Arabs as villains)
  3. ^ (16 March 2010). Deze film doorbreekt taboe in Arabische wereld, NU.nl (in Dutch), Retrieved December 15, 2010 (reporting that film caused much controversy in Arab media)
  4. ^ "Escaping Tel Aviv". Karim Abdel Aziz. Archived from the original on October 3, 2017.
  5. ^ "بــرنـــ TOP CINEMA  !¤ ولاد العم". Star Times. November 26, 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
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