Minister of Defence – Jeremy C. Processing

Director – Tarik Saleh – 2025 – Sweden, France, Denmark, Finland – Cert. 15 – 129m

****

A top Egyptian movie star finds himself working on a big budget, high concept, state-sponsored propaganda movie – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, May 22nd

The opening three scenes… The credits run over a montage of Egyptian movie posters. A group of men outdoors in the Egyptian sun listen attentively to radio commentary of a horse race. One of the men lights his lady passenger’s cigarette from his own as their car speeds towards the horizon of what could well be Monument Valley.. “cut” …but is a movie set with back projection. His assistant tells him has son has called three times – it’s the boy’s birthday, so the actor has his assistant buy his son an expensive watch. Not the greatest of fathers. The kissing couple on the side of the outside studio wall proclaims him to be Pharoah of the Screen George Fahmy (Fares Fares from Cairo Conspiracy, Tarik Saleh, 2022; Westworld, TV series, 2018; The Nile Hilton Incident, Tarik Saleh, 2017; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Gareth Edwards, 2016; Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes, Mikkel Nørgaard, 2013; Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow, 2012) and her Rula Haddad (Cherien Dabis, director of Only Murders in the Building, 6 episodes, 2021-23).… Read the rest

12.12: The Day
(Seour-ui Bom,
서울의 봄,
lit. Seoul Spring)

Director – Kim Sung Soo – 2023 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 141m

*****

In 1980, one Major General attempts to stop another from successfully orchestrating a military coup in South Korea – historical drama is South Korea’s entry for 2025 Best International Feature

In the aftermath of the assassination of President Park in 1979, an event portrayed in The Man Standing Next (Woo Min-ho, 2020), Chief of Staff Jeong (Lee Sung-min) promotes Major General Lee (Jung Woo-sung) to head of the Capital Garrison Command “because you’re not motivated by greed” and charges him with the job of defending Seoul. His concern is another Major General, Director of Joint Investigation Chun (Hwang Jung-min), who has access to the country’s surveillance services and is a member of the secret society Hanahoo which is rife within the military. Chun is already behaving like a king, and Jeong is worried what he might be planning.

And well he should be, because Chun is figuratively and literally empire-building, planning a coup d’etat and working out who is loyal to him (and will carry out his commands) and who isn’t. As far as he is concerned, Jeong is the enemy, and although the latter has been cleared of any involvement in the assassination, his presence at the scene of the assassination is enough to justify arrest and further interrogation.… Read the rest