The Judgment

Internalized homophobia can be a powerful force. We tend to think of it simply as lingering shame, or even as something that goes away upon coming out, but in fact its can take many different forms and is often culturally specific. We have seen many films about homosexuality and religion.  Add to that superstition and witchcraft and you get a nice little new genre that we probably have not seen before in gay films in recent times. With Egypt as the background and it looks visually stunning, this film is a taut, suspenseful thriller about gay men trying to reconcile their homosexuality against their family’s religious beliefs. It gets intense with several jump scares, but it is artfully made.

Mo and Hisham are a couple who are visiting Egypt to meet Mo’s mother after his father’s death month ago. They need to pretend to be just friends in order to stay safe in Egypt’s very homophobic environment. Coming back to Egypt, however, leaves Mo especially anxious and uneasy, because he has a past which we slowly start to uncover. When Sara Hegazi, an Egyptian lesbian activist, commits suicide as a result of PTSD from being imprisoned and tortured for flying a rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo, it starts to make things worse for Mo. Hisham wants to not do anything “gay” in public to keep his family and friends safe and in the process also realizes that Mo still views their relationship as sin. When Mo goes to visit his mother, she refuses to meet and an old nemesis instead is there. She does some kind of witchcraft over Mo, because of which he starts to imagine/hallucinate. An ominous sound, a metallic scrapping starts to haunt Mo. A mysterious child wandering the streets in shackles stalks him. He questions his sanity. Is he being followed, or is it paranoia? With the help of Hisham’s mother they try to reverse the curse, but stepping into the witchcraft has revived childhood terrors and deep religious fears, and he is afraid that his shame will be exposed to Hisham. We learn how MO was shames as a child and sent to Egypt to be “treated” of sinful thoughts in a very home prison like environment. Little by little, the judgment day he always feared, the god he always hated, the mother who stood against him, and the sins accumulating begin to quite literally haunt him through the witchcraft, leading to the confrontation Mo always feared.

The film shows an ambiguous relationship between religion and superstition, and the way in which local witchcraft traditions have become entangled with Islam. Mo and Hashim’s differently manifested guilt about their sexuality also put pressure on the relationship which provides his only anchor to reality. The film beautifully mixes reality and horror with similar backgrounds, to make them wonder if what they are witnessing is psychological or actually demonic. Others might wonder if it matters, as the bulk of the damage done stems from Mo’s beliefs, regardless of their accuracy. It doesn’t matter what it is because what it is trying to show is the internal damage thats caused to Mo from all the childhood trauma he has been bearing all his life. I just thought it was a very very interesting way to show it and something very new. Islam and gay has been topic that fascinates me a lot and here with Egypt as the background, I was naturally very excited to watch the film and I wasn’t disappointed. Here I have to say that the two leads have blazing chemistry and both look smoking hot on the screen together, especially Mo. They both are great actors and ably lend the film to the director’s vision. The film ends on a very positive and hopeful note when Hashim’s mother sort of gives her blessing to the couple and prays out loud, saying, “Make the country safe for them.” The film could have been even better but from what it was trying to say and message it is trying to relay, I think it does a very good job of it. Some views may find it frustrating to see the blur lines between fact and fiction but as I said, for me, it did not matter. (7/10)