| The Nile Hilton Incident | |
| Director: | Tarik Saleh |
| Producer: | Kristina Åberg |
| Starring: | Fares Fares |
| Runtime: | 106 minutes |
| Country: | Sweden Egypt Denmark Germany |
| Language: | Arabic Nuer/Dinka |
The Nile Hilton Incident (Arabic: حادث النيل هيلتون Hadith Alnayl Hiylton) is a 2017 Swedish thriller film directed by Tarik Saleh. It was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.[1] It was awarded the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic.[2] The film discusses the corruption of Egyptian police before the 25 January Revolution. The plot is inspired by the murder of the Lebanese Arab singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008.[3] At the 53rd Guldbagge Awards, the film won five awards, including Best Film.[4]
The narrative revolves around Noredin (Fares Fares), an enigmatic and rugged detective renowned for his chain-smoking habit. Tasked with an investigation, he delves into the unsettling murder case of Lalena, a pop star entwined in the world of politics as Hatem Shafiq's (based on Hisham Talaat Moustafa) mistress.[5] The grim discovery of Lalena's lifeless body, her throat brutally slit, occurs within the confines of the eponymous Nile Hilton hotel.[6]
The case takes an intriguing turn as the sole witness to the gruesome crime emerges – a Sudanese maid by the name of Salwa (Mari Malek).[7] Shafiq denies culpability for the murder of Lalena, who, it turns out, collaborated with a sleazy pimp named Nagy (Hichem Yacoubi) to capture compromising images of her clients (including Shafiq) to be used as blackmail.[8] The film also revealed that Shafiq had another mysterious guy (Slimane Dazi) kill Lalena.[9]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 55 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10.[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]