Writer-director Tarik Saleh’s engaging, textured Cairo crime drama takes place during the build-up to 2011’s Egyptian revolution, drawing parallels between the city’s rising tensions and his noirish antihero’s crumbling personal prospects. Though the film’s powerful police officers and political officials have supposed “legislative immunity”, it turns out that “no one is immune to scandal”. Noredin (Fares Fares) is a craggy, handsome, chainsmoking detective who is called on to investigate the gruesome murder of pop star (and politician’s mistress) Lalena, whose body has been found, throat cut, in the titular Nile Hilton hotel. The only witness to the crime is a Sudanese maid named Salwa (Mari Malek). With his prominent, avian nose and inquisitive eyes, Fares is a compelling screen presence, while Salehh’s attention to details of life in a country on the brink of change give things a sense of grimy perspicuity.
