Flawed festival bait by upper-class Egyptians (Egypt vs Masr) that fails to invoke any meaningful societal criticism or humanize those that are increasingly alienated.

The premise is fine. A young man, holding on to the memory of his father through writings that might never reach a wider audience, lives in near indentured service to a family representing the same extremism that led to his father's death. It is a chance encounter with a woman facing her own, equally bleak, destitute circumstances, that breaks his passiveness.

To me, the film's major flaw is in how it equates practicing Muslims with extremism and cultural Muslims with ignorance or hypocrisy. Essentially, we are presented with 3 Muslims in this film:

The mother and her son. Are they from the brotherhood? Connected to Libyan IS? Or just generic extremists in place for character development? Seems to be the latter, as the film doesn't shy away from depicting a praying scene in a way that is all but meant to invoke dread.
The woman. An illiterate prostitute who believes in djinn and resorts to praying to Mary for elevating her health issues.
Amm Arrabi. A Muslim in name only whose hypocrisy is played off for laughs.

Bumped from a 2.5 to a 3/5 for the strong cinematography and acting performances (in particular the character of Fatima). I really liked how the long, static shots of enclosed spaces depict a claustrophobic sense of imprisonment. Nevertheless, for a beautiful contemporary example of Egyptian indie cinema, I'd instead wholeheartedly recommend last year's Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo.