There are films that embrace you, and there are films that leave you uneasy long after the credits roll. ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ (2025) belongs to the latter. The Egyptian Filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s first feature film is beautifully shot, takes an intimate approach to personal struggle, yet is merciless in what it reveals about human cruelty.
The camera lingers on the main character’s face, showing despair taking form, and through gore, blood, sexual assault, and an exaggerated negative portrayal of Egyptians, it becomes difficult for the audience to bear.
‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’, an international co-production involving companies from Egypt, Tunisia, Qatar, Germany, Sudan, France, and Saudi Arabia, was written by Mostafa, Mohammad Abdulqader, and Sawsan Yusuf, with cinematography by Mostafa El Kashef.
It earned two nominations at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the Un Certain Regard Award and the Caméra d’Or.
A Cairo of shadows and defeat
‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ tells the story of Aisha, played by Buliana Simon Arop, a 26-year-old Sudanese woman living in Ain-Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo, alongside a large African migrant and refugee community.
Set against the backdrop of economic hardship, the film, released on 20 May 2025, shows tensions between the African migrants and local Egyptian gangs through the eyes of Aisha, who feels unsafe in the neighbourhood.
While she finds comfort in her friendship with Tawfiqah (Maya Mohamed) and in an undefined bond with Abdoun (Emad Ghoniem), Aisha lives a life that seems to be in perpetual motion.
Working as a caregiver for Khalil, an elderly wheelchair user played by Mamdouh Saleh, Aisha is expected to attend to his sexual needs. When she complains to her employer, her concerns are dismissed, and the employer coldly tells her to “consider it part of the nursing service.”
Trying to make ends meet, she also takes on employment as a domestic helper under the pressure of a gang member (Ziad Zaza), who blackmails her into giving him spare keys to the homes where she works in exchange for protection.
Stuck between the fear of working with a gangster whom she aids in stealing homes and an abusive job, Aisha struggles to cope with her lost battles and her wild imagination of an ostrich.
The film includes a magical element of Aisha seeing an ostrich staring at her; it serves as a nod to the film’s title, symbolizing Aisha as a bird that can not fly away nor escape reality by burying its head in the sand.
Its depiction of hallucinations under duress, subtle use of symbolism, and commitment to showing rather than telling demonstrate a strong command of cinematic storytelling. The moody and dimly lit streets, along with the lingering sense of danger Aisha feels, give the film a distinct noir atmosphere.
While the film uses close-up shots of Aisha’s face to highlight her emotions and immerses the audience in silence to evoke their own unprompted feelings, its bleak outlook, explicit use of vulgar language, scenes of sexual assault, and graphic violence blatantly urge the audience to see Egypt as a kind of living hell.
Namely, a gang ruling the neighbourhood, dealing drugs, and rallying its troops, all while escaping punishment, portrays Egypt as a lawless country. Adding salt to the wound, when Aisha questions the bank teller about a missing EGP 200 (USD 4.21) note from her withdrawal, he responds with the worst of curses to insult her and physically abuses her.
A bitter verdict
Perceived as insulting and defamatory toward Egypt, many viewers criticized Mostafa for his over-the-top portrayal of Egyptians as racist, xenophobic, and violent, and of Egypt as an overall dark, sorrowful country.
Mennah, a user on Letterboxd, a social platform for film enthusiasts, reviewed the film, stating that Mostafa produced the film primarily for the awards, aiming to cater to a Western narrative that portrays Egypt as a bleak, miserable, poverty-stricken, and tragic country, to gain the approval of film festival juries.
Personally, I echo Mennah’s sentiment. A frame of Talaat Harb square in Tahrir, downtown Cairo, has no business being gloomy in a country that is almost always sunny. In this shot, and in many others, the film tries in every aspect to evoke the feeling of despair.
While the story is told from the point of view of Aisha, a vulnerable woman escaping war and gang exploitation, an Egyptian movie of this magnitude, meant for an international audience, demands a more nuanced portrayal, with critical distance.
Aisha’s struggle could have been further magnified by depicting the positive and negative aspects of a refugee’s life in Cairo. Moments of kindness, compassion, and hospitality would have provided a compelling contrast to the hardship and unfortunate situation she endures.
While it is understandable that, through the eyes of a displaced and, possibly, depressed person, the whole world looks desolate, the film could have achieved greater impact had it trusted viewers to discover their compassion for Aisha on their own rather than steering them toward it.
For someone looking for an aesthetically pleasing and beautifully shot film, watch ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’. For the faint of heart, do not.
Those drawn to hauntingly beautiful cinematography will find ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’ captivating. But, for those who are easily unsettled, the film’s raw intensity could make it a difficult watch.
The opinions and ideas expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Egyptian Streets’ editorial team. To submit an opinion article, please email [email protected].
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