A few days ago I went to see a movie by the name “Wahid - Sifr” which translates into “One - Zero”. The movie has been causing quite a ripple as it targets the more or less sensitive and hush topic of divorce in Coptic Christianity. Allegedly the Egyptian Church had issues with the film and were fighting its release.

Well...

I think the church is being silly, the movie doesn’t even deserve a review, let alone for the church to give it any sort of attention or attribution by requesting that it doesn’t get released.

The movie was a complete disaster. 145 minutes or so of utter annoyance. Let’s see, where should I start...

One-Zero refers to Egypt’s winning score at the last African Cup of Nations, where the Egyptian football team scored the winning goal against Cameroon. With that in mind, the movie’s entire events take place over two days at the most, where different characters are experiencing deep self-realizations that are difficult and climatic in nature.

The parallel stories of these characters reminds the viewer of something that has been seen on the big screen before, especially that the score and directing don’t help offer an original or independent vision for the movie. Babel comes to mind! And honestly, I’m tired of going to see Egyptian movies only to realize it’s a cheap imitation of something better and well..usually American!

With as much novelty as there was in the camera techniques, well at least for Egyptian Cinema, the director blows it all by exhaustingly using these new techniques, continuously and very inconsistently. Her angles are new but weird, her zooms are smooth but exaggerated, her on-shoulder camera is refreshing but shortly becomes tiresome for the viewer, who wants to just scream “Stand Still”!!! I’m not a direction expert, and definitely no movie critic, but that’s the beauty of the blog-sphere, I can say whatever I want!

And this is what I want to say: come up with your own style!!!! Every actor in the film reminded me of at least one other actor, either a bigger Egyptian actor, or a foreign, usually, again, American actor.
The plot might be somewhat original, but it is very predictable and very slow, the 15 or so people watching the movie with me were just as restless 30 minutes into it.
The score, the score is excellent, but i’m sorry to say, sounds very similar to another movie I was constantly reminded of during this film.

The so called controversy attempted in this movie is cheap and poor. Divorce in Coptic Christianity is a grave matter and MANY, MANY people suffer in their lives because of this issue. The Orthodox Coptic Church is one of the very few standing churches in the modern world who still uphold the Bible’s verdict on divorce...so if you want to address this issue, you don’t address it this lightly, with such poverty in acting skills and cinematic effect.
Not to mention that you completely disregarded the fact that the main christian character is an adulterer, sleeping with a man 30 yrs or so her junior. So, other than the fact that it was unrealistic, silly, offensive, and unsound, your actress for the role was such a HORRIBLE casting choice, seriously, I don’t see what the church had to worry about.

The climax was FUNNY. I have nothing to say but that. 10 minutes or so, the movie theater was echoing with laughter as most of the characters’ lives in the movie fell apart...what does that tell you? So this isn’t my opinion alone...this is the feedback that surrounded me...people couldn’t stop laughing, that they actually felt bad about it later on.

The Egyptian people, on the day of the game, did go out in the streets and celebrate and it was probably the biggest celebration we’ve had on our streets since the previous African Cup we won before that...and that too, was a lonesome celebration in a long line of disasters and sad events the Egyptian people withstood.
So yes, good job highlighting that...all the joy and the love and the celebration and the happiness that was going on that day.
But SHAME on you, to leave all the problems in your movie unanswered and un-tackled and unsolved and under-developed, just because the team won.

You added nothing to me as a viewer, you gave me no value, no thoughts on my way home, except for the fact that it was a waste of my time. The movie is a shame.

Acting wise, the one good thing this movie served as was a platform for two actors to perform their Life-performances. Ahmed El Feshawy and Intisar, pulled their best performance to date. I probably only sat through this entire shamble, to wait for the next scene when these two really entertained.

The little kid in the movie was such a joy to watch. It’s not often to see junior talent in Egyptian cinema that comes off natural and actually act like a kid not a small man/woman.

Hussein El Imam, was Excellent, too bad he only had a total of like 5 minutes on the screen. Such a shame!!!!
Meh...