Boy From Heaven follows young student Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) as he attends Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious Islamic educational institution in the world. The school, which he’s attending on a state scholarship, takes him far from his small fishing town to the bustling metropolis of Cairo. However, plans are in motion in the shadowy corridors after the grand imam, the head of the university and the most influential religious figure in the country dies in front of the school. Looking to install a leader that is in their best interests, state security colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares) recruits a reluctant Adam to help their cause from the inside.
If this sounds like a story you’ve seen before, then you’re right. A thriller following a young reluctant recruit tasked with spying from within an organization isn’t new. However, what director Tarik Saleh proves is that a story can be fresh and new with a change of setting and perspective. Saleh directs the film with a methodical slow-burn pace that keeps you hooked with every new revelation as Adam’s position puts him into further danger. With each progressive scene, the Hitchcockian influences become even clearer as suspicion and paranoia slowly increase. At just over two hours, it’s surprisingly one of the shorter titles at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, but never for a moment does it lag.
Though the story may be familiar, the world it takes in, at least to me, is foreign. Saleh tackles the sensitive subject of Egypt’s separation of church and state or lack thereof. The political maneuvering of the state almost completely conflicts with the religion’s “if God wills” teaching. By the movie’s end, the title Boy from Heaven almost feels tongue-in-cheek as Adam’s fate lies in the hand of earthly forces. Newcomer Tawfeek Barhom gives a committed performance of a boy asked to grow up and face the harsh realities of a culture he’s loved as he reluctantly fights for survival. It is one of the best performances of the festival.
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The logline for Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne in the original Italian) of the friendship between two men that over the years reignites in a remote Alpine village could conjure up comparisons to movies like Into the Wild, Wild, or Brokeback Mountain. However, unlike any of those movies, The Eight Mountains starts at the bottom of an incline but never climbs it.
I had the same problem with Groeningen’s previous film Beautiful Boy as I did this. The craft is undoubtedly beautiful, the score from Daniel Norgren and cinematography from Ruben Impens in particular, but underneath it’s empty. It is nothing but an emotionless exploration of self-identity that doesn’t do anything to actually unpack it. Gratuitous voiceover and a collection of unremarkable scenes are meant to stir some empathy for the characters. Instead, those scenes reek of self-importance. The movie tells us to care instead of showing us why.
It’s unfortunate considering the autobiography of the same name it is based on is regarded highly for its intimacy and perspective. In place of that intimacy, Groeningen and Vandermeersch opted for aesthetics that keep us at an arm’s length from the characters. Perhaps it’s because they themselves don’t understand the story they are telling. Themes of memory, regret, friendship, and loneliness crop up. But once we begin to explore those trails they disappear. For example, when the film’s protagonist Pietro (well-acted by Luca Marinelli) ventures to Nepal to find himself after a loss, he explains in voiceover what he felt, but we never visualize it. We’re told to trust his word that he’s a better person, that he found love, that he understands his life somehow. But it’s impossible to trust someone that we aren’t taught to care for.
Maybe others will be affected by The Eight Mountains. Maybe it’s a journey I haven’t needed to take. But frankly, I’m not sure that Pietro took the journey either — like the equivalent of reading a self-help book instead of going to therapy.
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EO, which is competing for the Palme d’Or, doesn’t have a plot, little dialogue and, oh, the protagonist is a depressed donkey that may or may not wish he was a horse, but this weird little movie is irresistible. Sure, its lead is a donkey, but this movie is as human as it gets as we watch him journey away from home and back again. And just like Mr. Frodo, he experiences a wide array of people at their best but mostly at their worst.
Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, who has been a blind spot for me until now, doesn’t over personify his character though. He’ll close in on Eo after a significant event or have him react to something in some way. But he makes clear that he is an animal. That’s not to say he doesn’t care for him. The whole point of the movie is to mine empathy for Eo while also exploring the human world, particularly the conflict in it.
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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