Back in 2022, superstar Youssra starred during the Ramadan race in ‘Ahlam Saeeda’ (Sweet Dreams) where she played Farida, a woman struggling with insomnia and on a mission of uncovering who caused the car accident that left her blind. Though at the core of it, the story was dramatic, the way the journey unfolded was hopeful. From the dialogue to directing, ‘Ahlam Saeeda’ marked Youssra’s return to a light role following years of sobbing endlessly about murdered or missing children. Youssra returns this Ramadan with another attempt at comedy: ‘Alf Hamdella Ala El Salama’ (Welcome back).
We track Youssra’s character, Samiha, her daughter, Samah (Mayan El Sayad) and her son, Sameh (Adam El Sharkawy) as they head back to Egypt after living their entire lives in Canada. On a mission to collect her will after her husband’s passing, Samiha and her kids are forced to return back to the country they never knew.
The bumpy ride of Samiha, Samah, and Sameh (yes these are their names) is crafted by writer, Mohamed Zu Al Faqqar and directors, Amr Salah and Saif Al Shawarby.
As someone who has lived almost my entire life abroad and only just moved back home, I found it hard to relate to the over-the-top characters.
The minute the characters land in Egypt, they’re overly impressed with everything surrounding them, be it people handing out flowers to the fact that they’ll be staying Downtown. All of this is fine for someone who hasn’t seen Cairo before, but for Samiha, she lacks street sense, unable to determine how much to pay the taxi driver. Even when she notices that her bags were swapped (a typical cliché but not the point) her kids come up with crazy solutions and start high-fiving uncontrollably as if they’ve ended world hunger, the theatrical reactions overpowered an otherwise interesting storyline.
Though the plot so far, in my opinion, is lacking, the acting isn’t helping the situation. While El Sayad and El Sharkawy are talented actors and we’ve seen them in great roles before, comedy isn’t their strong suit and the dialogue didn’t help much as it only led them to overact.
This is just my review thus far and with more episodes to come, I’m hoping there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Let us know if you have a different take.
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