EAGLES OF THE REPUCLIC
BY TARIK SALAH
Egypt's most adored actor, George Fahmy (Fares Fares) is pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities. He reluctantly accepts the role and finds himself thrown into the inner circle of power. Like a moth drawn to the flame he begins an affair with the mysterious wife of the general overseeing the film.
Eagles of the Republic aka Les Aigles de la République is a Swedish (Unlimited Stories & Apparaten), French (Memento Production), Danish (Ström Pictures), Finnish (Bufo Oy) and German (Films Boutique) co-production with a budget of 9 M€, making it one of the biggest productions for an Arabic language film to date.
Produced by Linus Stöhr Torell (Unlimited Stories), Linda Mutawi, Johan Lindström (Apparaten) and Alexandre Mallet-Guy (Memento Production).
Nordic distribution: SF Studios
French distribution: Memento
International sales: Playtime
Behind the camera
Director – Tarik Saleh
Writer – Tarik Saleh
Producers – Linda Mutawi, Linus Stöhr Torell, Johan Lindström and Alexandre Mallet-Guy
Co-producer - Monica Hellström (Ström Pictures), Bufo Oy, Film Boutique
Photographer – Pierre Aïm
Production Designer – Roger Rosenberg
Costume Designer – Virginie Montel
Make up & Hair Designer – Saara Räisänen
Editor – Theis Schmidt
Sound Designer & Mix - Hans Møller, Peter Winther
Music composer - Alexandre Desplat
VFX supervisor - Peter Hjorth
VFX Producer - Mikael Windelin
Post Producer - Jacob Clemmesen
Tarik Saleh – Director and Scriptwriter
Tarik Saleh has a background as one of the most influential graffiti artists in Europe in the 80’s. His dramatic feature film debut came with Metropia, 2009, a dystopic animation with Stellan and Alexander Skarsgård, Juliette Lewis, Vincent Gallo and Udo Kier. The film premiered at Venice Film Festival as opening film for Critics’ Week. The Nile Hilton Incident won ‘The Grand Jury Prize’ at Sundance 2017, received a Guldbagge Award for ‘Best film’ in 2018, was nominated as ‘Best Foreign Film’ at the César Awards and was a box office hit with more than 400 000 tickets sold in France. Tarik Saleh won the Prix du scénario for ’Best Screenplay’ at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 for Cairo Conspiracy aka Boy from Heaven, Sweden's Oscar entry in 2023, received a César nomination for ’Best Foreign Film’ and achieved over 500 000 cinema admissions in France. He also directed The Contractor, 2022 starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Kiefer Sutherland, episodes of the futuristic HBO-series Westworld and Ray Donavon for Showtime 2018 and the Swedish thriller Tommy, 2014. Saleh also directed the documentaries Gitmo: The New Rules of War, 2005 and Sacrificio: Who Betrayed Che Guevara, 2001 together with Erik Gandini. Further, Saleh is known for his collaborations with singer Lykke Li. The music video "I Follow Rivers" has over 60 million views on YouTube.
Eagles of the Republic is produced by Unlimited Stories, Apparaten, and Memento Production, in co-production with Ström Pictures, Bufo Oy, Films Boutique, SVT, Film i Väst, ARTE France Cinéma, SF Studios, Mikael Ahlström Films, Playtime. With the support of the Swedish Film Institute, Playtime, Canal +, Ciné +, Eurimages, Nordisk Film & TV Fund, Memento, Bayerisher Rundfunk, ARTE France, Danish Film Institute, Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée, Paris Region Fund, Finnish Film Foundation, YLE and DR.International sales are handled by Playtime, French distribution by Memento and SF Studios is distributing Pan-Nordic.
The previous films in the Cairo trilogy were both huge international successes. Tarik Saleh won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 for Cairo Conspiracy aka Boy from Heaven. The film was Sweden's Oscar entry 2023 and received a César nomination for ’Best Foreign Film’ 2023. The Nile Hilton Incident received the Grand Jury Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the Swedish Academy Award for ’Best Film’ in 2018, and a César nomination for ’Best Foreign Language Film, to name a few awards.