Luxor (film)

Luxor
Theatrical release poster
Directed byZeina Durra
Written byZeina Durra
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyZelmira Gainza
Edited byAndrea Chignoli
Production
company
Film Clinic
Release date
  • January 2020 (2020-01) (Sundance)[1]
Running time
85 minutes
Countries
  • Egypt
  • United Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • Arabic

Luxor is a 2020 romantic drama film directed by Zeina Durra. It is about a young aid worker, Hanna, who becomes overwhelmed by treating victims from the Syrian war, takes a solo trip to Egypt and runs into an old flame. It was released on 6 November 2020 in digital format.

Plot

When British aid worker Hana returns to the ancient city of Luxor, she comes across Sultan, a talented archaeologist and former lover. As she wanders, haunted by the familiar place, she struggles to reconcile the choices of the past with the uncertainty of the present.

Cast

Release

The film was screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.[2] It was released on 6 November 2020 in digital format.[3]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 73 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Led by Andrea Riseborough's layered performance, Luxor empathetically surveys the crossroads between trauma and recovery."[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[5]

Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 4/5 stars, praising the actors' performances and writing, "Like director Joanna Hogg, Durra excels at suggesting subtexts and undercurrents threaded through everyday conversations."[3] Tara Brady of The Irish Times gave the film 3/5 stars, writing, "A straight companion piece for Hong Khaou's meditative Monsoon, Luxor offers a strange marriage of travelogue, post-traumatic stress disorder, spirituality and something like romance."[6]

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a satisfyingly meditative, history-laden space, one that asks us to consider how we reconcile our experiences with our present, and, as a result, with whom we want to be."[7]Variety's Jay Weissberg wrote, "Saleh has a solid résumé in international productions including TV, and he's well-paired with Riseborough in the way he exudes a gentle solidity that Hana needs yet also partly resists, unsure if she can cope with any more emotional attachments."[8]

References

  1. ^ "Luxor".
  2. ^ "luxor". www.sundance.org. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  3. ^ a b Felperin, Leslie (2020-11-04). "Luxor review - beautifully sparse character study amid Egypt's ancient glory". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  4. ^ "Luxor". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 30, 2023. Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "Luxor". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  6. ^ Brady, Tara (November 6, 2020). "Luxor: Aimless drama frustratingly resists Egyptian politics". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  7. ^ Abele, Robert (2020-12-03). "Review: 'Luxor' and Andrea Riseborough contemplate the essence of being". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  8. ^ Weissberg, Jay (2020-01-27). "'Luxor': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved 2020-12-25.