The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

To the shock of no-one, El Sakka doesn’t deviate one bit from his
established archetype with all the swaggering and gesticulating it entails. But
what is surprising, and frankly disappointing, is that Khotout Hamra is essentially a fleshed out version of the actor’s
latest film; El Maslaha.

El Sakka plays a police officer working to bring down an Upper Egyptian
weapon dealer and his sons and cohorts. The show portrays how this power
struggle affects the police officer’s family in Cairo and the weapon dealer’s
family in Upper Egypt and how their mutual thirst for revenge influences their
lives and choices. 

If you weren’t entirely convinced beforehand, this show spells it out
for you; El Sakka sorely lacks range as an actor and the talented supporting cast
only serve to amplify this handicap. His character, Hossam, is basically a good
person who can do no wrong, neither in his personal life nor his professional
one – rooting for and empathizing with him should come naturally to the
audience. Gouda, a highlight of the show despite her rather small role, is
given a similarly moral character to play. She plays Iman, Hossam’s partner’s
wife, and like Hossam, she’s subject to heartbreak and pain. Yet contrast her
performance with El Sakka’s and you’ll find that she’s far more affecting and
engaging than he is. She endows her character with a sense of quiet sincerity
that is all but absent when it comes to Hossam. Even her interaction with her
husband and their love for each other seem far more natural than Hossam’s with
his wife. Similarly impressive is Reyahna and Youssef’s story arc. They play
the weapon dealer’s fugitive son Diab and his admirably headstrong wife Hekmat;
a couple who were forced to marry but then discover that they weren’t such a
bad fit after all.

The show’s lead, however, operates on a different wavelength to the rest
of the cast. His acting style is more suited to his films and their two hour
adrenaline rush. Television, however, is another beast entirely and a more restrained
style would have meshed better with the show’s overall energy and vibe,
especially since it’s more about people’s day to day lives than action
sequences and shoot outs.

Despite the impressive presence of the aforementioned actors, we’d only
recommended Khotout Hamra to die-hard
El Sakka fans. For everyone else, the film version should suffice; it’s quicker and
El Sakka’s perfromance is more entertaining in yearly as opposed to daily doses. Besides, the
rest of the cast is populated with mildly irritating characters, the production
value is fairly standard and neither the interiors nor the camera work are
enough to tempt viewers to tune in every day.