Could Marwan Hamed's 'Kira & El Gin' Be Egypt's Most Expensive Movie Ever?

So we all know how good Marwan Hamed’s movies are. Anyone who has seen 'The Yacoubian Building', 'The Blue Elephant', and 'The Blue Elephant 2' — which happens to be one of the highest-grossing Egyptian films in local box office history — knows that. Right now, Hamed is shooting the highly-anticipated ‘Kira and El Gin’, which is based on the popular novel ‘1919’ by Ahmed Mourad. And according to Hamed himself, the project is going to be the most expensive film in Egyptian cinema’s history at a budget of USD10 million. And considering his track record, maybe it's not too crazy to trust him on that.

The feature-length film will star heartthrobs Karim Abdelaziz and Ahmed Ezz, along with Hind Sabri and Ahmed Malek. The plot is set in colonial Egypt, and follows revolutionists who want to free Egypt of British rule.

According to Hamed, one of the reasons the film has such a large budget is because of the opening of Saudi cinemas, which is a huge market for Egyptian film. Theatres in Saudi Arabia didn’t perform badly compared to those here even during lockdown. Combined with the encouraging box office numbers that Egypt displayed throughout 2019, this meant that big-budget Egyptian filmmakers can afford to make even bigger-budget investments.

Around 50 percent of the film has already been shot. It's scheduled to wrap up by mid-2021, and to finally premiere at the beginning of 2022.