The film "Mako" is inspired by the accident of the Egyptian ferry "Salem Express", which sank in mid-December 1991 near the coast of the city of Safaga in the Red Sea (social networking sites)

Cairo -

The film "Mako" - which competed in the summer film season this year - comes as a new experience in underwater photography. It was produced by Mohamed Al-Sharif, directed by Mohamed Hisham Al-Rashidi, and written by Ahmed Halim and Mohamed Hafnawi.

The film stars a group of artists, most notably: Basma, Nicholas Moawad, Nahed El Sebaei, Munther Rayahna, Faryal Youssef, Amr Wahba, Mohamed Mahran, and Sarah El Shamy.

Read also

list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4

Musa, the first Egyptian science fiction film... a serious dream ruined by the script

list 2 of 4

The passing of “Voice of Battle” Hamdi Al-Kanisi... Corona ends the life of the most famous Egyptian war correspondent

list 3 of 4

On the anniversary of his death.. Will Dodi Al-Fayed appear in the next season of “The Crown”

list 4 of 4

The return of director Khaled Youssef...a controversial reception and social media users open fire on the “fugitive”

end of list

the incident

The film "Mako" is inspired by the accident of the Egyptian ferry "Salem Express", which sank in mid-December 1991 near the coast of the city of Safaga in the Red Sea, after colliding with coral reefs only 16 kilometers from the port, causing the death of 476 passengers, most of whom were Egyptians. The ferry is still lying in the depths of the sea at a depth of 32 meters as a target site for diving enthusiasts.

the story

The story revolves around documentary film director Rana Bahjat (Basma), who seeks to achieve her dream of presenting an award-winning documentary. She and her team are excited to film a documentary about the ferry “Salem Express” and the negative energy that pervades the place. The team begins preparing to dive to explore and photograph the ferry.

Between Spielberg and Mako

Perhaps the makers of the movie “Mako” tried to benefit from the experience of American director Steven Alan Spielberg in his famous movie “Jaws,” known in Arabic as “Jaws,” which moved him from just a young director beginning his steps in Hollywood to the world of fame, but they forgot or forgot the most important things he achieved. Spielberg is a success.

The makers of “Mako” had a good budget by the standards of Egyptian cinema: well-known movie stars, good visual effects in the year 2021, and yet there is no comparison with a well-known classic masterpiece like “Jaws,” simply because the good script and the director’s talent are the difference despite the terrible difference in technology. Although Spielberg himself failed to make the robotic shark monster terrifying enough, he resorted to music.

Good publicity

In their television interviews, the actors never stop talking about the difficulty of the work and the difficult filming atmosphere, as it is their most difficult role ever. The film’s heroine, Basma, believes that the work aroused her fear at first, and that she was not sure of the seriousness of the project. Then she believed in the director and his vision, and saw that this experience It will open the door to experimentation, imagination, and the use of graphics in subsequent films, and access to “production of films about alien creatures.”

The film took 4 years of writing, preparation, photography, editing, and graphics. The film is credited with relying on a real incident such as the sinking of the “Salem Express” ferry, adventuring in introducing the underwater photography experience again to Egyptian cinema, relying on collective heroism, and presenting the theme of shark films.

Passionate about diving

But it is not enough for the writer or director to love diving, or their passion for exploring the site of the sunken ferry, for them to be able to make a good movie about exploring the ferry, despite their efforts to create dramatic developments underwater out of fear that someone might fall into a diabetic coma, lack of oxygen, a shark attack, or artificial transformations. In the behaviors of the characters, most of them come without proper introduction or introduction, which underestimates the viewer’s mentality.

Absence of dramatic justification

The main problem with the scenario is the lack of dramatic justification. If this enthusiastic team is really passionate about filming a documentary about the sunken ferry, what motivates them all to dive? Isn't the film director and photographer enough to go through the experience? When it seemed so difficult and potentially so dangerous, why didn't they decide to withdraw? Why do heroes suddenly turn from normal characters to evil, selfish characters without any prior explanation?

It appears from the sound tape that the underwater voices of the actors were recorded in the studio and mixed with the scenes that the actors filmed underwater, which made it completely away from the atmosphere of the film, especially with the long, boring discussions that take place between the film’s heroes underwater while dangers surround them.

Good effort

It is necessary to praise the great effort and determination made by both the author and director to find a producer for such a bold idea, as they embark on their first experiences in the world of cinema, a film in which most of its scenes are filmed underwater, and then also convince the actors of this idea, including arduous training. To dive underwater, but great effort alone does not make a good movie. The first rule is that a bad scenario can never make a good movie.

Egyptian underwater cinema

Director Nader Galal presented the two most important experiences in underwater photography in Egyptian cinema in two consecutive years, when he presented his film “Underwater Hell” starring Samir Sabry and Laila Alawi in 1989, then his most successful experience in the film “Devil’s Island”, starring Adel Imam, Yousra and Ahmed Rateb. To be one of the most important successful commercial films that dealt with the theme of adventure and diving in the sea.

The heroes had a strong motivation to embark on this risky adventure: this group was formed to search for sunken gold bullion, and there was a strong justification for these people, with different interests and social backgrounds, to sacrifice their time, money, and effort for the sake of a valuable treasure.

Source: Al Jazeera