Cairo Class is a Kuwaiti historical drama set in 50’s Egypt during Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule. It follows the lives of university students in Cairo who deal with friendship trouble, romance, morals, societal pressure, and politics. In the beginning of the show, the Ministry of Education in Kuwait announces that it will be providing more scholarships to females in order to give them more opportunities to complete their education. We follow the characters Nozha, Dalal, Luluah, Iqbal and Sabikah on their way to Cairo University, and there we meet the rest of the characters.
I have never attentively watched an Arab show before, so everything in this drama felt so new to me, yet so familiar. I felt represented in this show even though it followed Kuwaiti people in the 50’s. I felt the sense of Arab identity which is quite befitting, considering that Nasser wanted to unite all Arabs under this identity. While Kuwaitis have a very different culture from Egyptians, I loved watching them interact and I laughed at how accurate the show’s depiction of Arabs is. However, what stood out the most in this show is the characters.
All the characters in this show are so morally complex that I gave up trying to place them on the ethical scale. Whether it was how they spoke to each other to how physically violent they can be, these characters are not your typical archetypes of good and bad. I am also pleased to say that every character has surprised me in this show with his or her actions, and I loved the range of emotions I went through. I was angry, I was scared, I was provoked, I was jealous, I was miserable, I was happy, I was hopeful…the list goes on.
This made me realize what made literature and stories so engaging — it’s never the knight in shining armor, or the kind-hearted princess. It was the realistic, raw, rough characters who’ve been through so much, struggle to cope well, and hurt other people. These are the characters we love and relate to because we see our biggest fears and doubts represented before our eyes. Stories ask the question “What if this happened to me?” and then they attempt to answer the question, and this comforts us because it helps us make decisions in our lives.
The characters that stood out to me when it came to moral complexity are Yousef and Dalal. Without giving much away, we learn from the start that the two are in love. However, Yousef is married to a woman named Latifa, and Dalal has recently had a divorce with a man named Suleiman. The things these two do out of their suppressed love and frustration never cease to shock me, and sometimes they go as far as putting people in danger out of their jealousy. Despite their actions, I never found it in my heart to hate them; I have sympathy for every single character in this show despite their flaws. Someone who writes a story like this is a truly empathic and wise person. I can only dream to write characters such as those in Cairo Class.
Literature at its best is about understanding one another and learning to feel for each other. And this show made me connect to the characters and their worlds so deeply, thanks to the use of color, the music, the plot’s complexity, the costumes, the problems Muslims and Arabs face in life, the politics of the time — all of it, I was living it. Cairo Class also made me reconnect with my part-Egyptian heritage. The show pays a great homage to the Golden era of black-and-white Egyptian movies by comparing the lives of the characters to those in the movies.
I have screen-recorded part of the show from Netflix and attached it here. This was one of the best filming techniques I’ve seen in this show and I loved the layering of the music and Nasser’s speech, and the characters frozen in their spot in a black-and-white filter.
Though I haven’t finished watching the show, I am already deeply in love and invested, and I curious to see if anyone has heard of or watched this show (please no spoilers if you did, hahahaha!).
Questions for discussion:
- Have you ever read or watched something that brought out strong emotions in you?
- Are there characters you’ve met who frustrate you? And if so, why?
- What’s the importance of representation in stories? Representation of race, religion, gender, sexuality?
- What are you thoughts of dramas? How accurately do they depict lives? What do they exaggerate?
- Are there any film techniques that you find fascinating and powerful?
I completely agree with you about the types of characters we’re drawn to. Although it can be fun to explore the psyches of “perfect” character, it’s always the messy ones which tend to have the more compelling characterisation and arcs. Also I watched the clip you attached and the way that scene is filmed is so creative. Massive kudos to the cinematographer there. I’d never heard of this show before but the way you describe it sounds super interesting so I’ll definitely be checking it out sometime!
I haven’t actually watched the full show before but from the amount of Instagram clips I’ve seen, it definitely feels like I watched it…
I love that you mentioned the imperfections and flaws of these characters, I think those factors are what actually build the characters and make them who they are. For example, Fahad wouldn’t be such a character without his standoffish attitude, and we wouldn’t be so empathetic towards Nuzha without her often weak demeanor. All of them have weaknesses and the writer not only establishes that but also emphasizes them and builds the whole storyline on them.