In Morad Mostafa’s austere and fascinating characteristic debut “Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” the title says all of it. An absorbing and at occasions, puzzling mix of genres starting from drama to physique horror tells the story of an African immigrant who each craves one thing extra and deserves rather a lot higher than the hand she’s been dealt. However like a caged hen, she will’t escape her merciless and imprisoning circumstances.

Performed by a terrific Buliana Simon in a exact efficiency of stoic poise, Aisha is a 26-year-old Sudanese caregiver, tending to the wants of the aged, serving to with their treatment and maintaining their flats. Residing as an immigrant within the bustling metropolis of Cairo, within the powerful neighborhood of Ain Shams (the place Mostafa has spent his childhood and teenage years, and due to this fact captures with an insider’s lens), she is usually observing and narrowly surviving the dysfunction and violence that erupt within the streets. Her solely likelihood for security is to chop a unclean take care of the hard-nosed gang chief Zuka (rapper Ziad Zaza). Early on, we watch Aisha as she leaves the residence she works at for the day, after she makes a duplicate of the home key to later move onto Zuka. This can be a common association between the 2: Aisha would steal home keys, and Zuka would supply her safety in return.

As within the movie “Promised Sky” (which premiered alongside “Aisha” in Un Sure Regard at Cannes), Mostafa’s movie focuses on an African lady alienated and left with out choices on her personal continent. Annoyed and sometimes exhausted, she spends her days and nights in a near-autopilot mode, doing what’s anticipated of her and barely getting by, solely to search out her job in jeopardy after one of many purchasers whose key she’s duplicated will get brutally attacked by Zuka’s folks throughout their theft. The employment company will solely enable her to maintain her place if she agrees to modify homes and grow to be the caregiver of the slimy and predatory Mr. Khalil (Mamdouh Saleh). When Aisha refuses his sexual calls for and asks to be transferred, her employer simply dismisses her plea (regardless of hers not being the primary criticism about him). She should settle for his sexual abuse as a part of her nursing duties, or else search for a distinct job. Heartbreakingly, she complies.

When a wierd rash develops on Aisha’s physique, the movie regularly provides complicated physique horror components to its tapestry. A touch of surreal symbolism can be within the combine with Aisha often working into an intimidating (generally violent) ostrich within the streets and homes the place she works. The hen, with its menacing stance, is definitely a figment of Aisha’s creativeness. It’s not fairly clear what these fantasy sequences are imagined to symbolize: Might or not it’s Aisha’s personal rising inside energy as a hen, as teased within the title? Realized with spectacular make-up work and results, the bumpy and worsening rash round her torso means that she is likely to be morphing into one thing akin to an ostrich. Whereas these elongated sequences show efficient, they arrive throughout as a tortured and distracting metaphor — the real-world horrors of Aisha’s scenario converse clearly sufficient for themselves.

Regardless of his iffy deal with on mixing tones and genres, Mostafa nonetheless steers the layered and chaotic world of “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” with a painterly lens, fortunately avoiding a way of visible romanticization within the midst of her lead’s dire circumstances. Crowded sidewalks, dusty roads and a densely populated metropolis unfold out within the background, whereas cinematographer Mostaga El Kashef stays near Aisha’s face, underscoring her silent perceptiveness. In her considerate portrayal of a younger lady with no good prospects, Simon articulates Aisha’s resolute headspace distinctly, commanding the display screen along with her sharp, uncompromising gaze. The gifted actor constantly deepens and intensifies the environment of “Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” infusing it with a haunting and harmful high quality.

At occasions, the movie leans into unnecessary miserabilism, however Mostafa luckily offers Aisha (and the viewers) some respiration room, reminding us the small pockets of peace in her world by means of some underdeveloped however very welcome aspect characters. One in every of them is a chef (Emad Ghoniem) who typically feeds Aisha with a beneficiant plate of meals. The opposite is a pal (Maya Mohamed) who’s a dependable a part of Aisha’s tiny circle of assist. The movie is at its strongest when intimately maintaining its lens on Aisha’s tangible struggles, whereas organically contextualizing the modest cases of goodness in her life in distinction with the dire political backdrop of the area. On the entire, Mostafa delivers a worthwhile and intriguing character research, with disquietingly memorable photographs that startle even after they often overpower the human drama on the movie’s middle.