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Luxor (film)

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Luxor
Theatrical release poster
Directed byZeina Durra
Written byZeina Durra
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyZelmira Gainza
Edited byAndrea Chignoli
Production
company
Film Clinic
Release date
  • January 2020 (2020-01) (Sundance)[1]
Running time
85 minutes
Countries
  • Egypt
  • United Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • Arabic

Luxor is a 2020 romantic drama film directed by Zeina Durra. It is about a young aid worker, Hanna, who becomes overwhelmed by treating victims from the Syrian war, takes a solo trip to Egypt and runs into an old flame. It was released on November 6, 2020 in digital format.

Plot

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When British aid worker Hana returns to the ancient city of Luxor, she comes across Sultan, a talented archaeologist and former lover. As she wanders, haunted by the familiar place, she struggles to reconcile the choices of the past with the uncertainty of the present.

Cast

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Release

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The film was screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.[2] It was released on 6 November 2020 in digital format.[3]

Reception

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 73 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Led by Andrea Riseborough's layered performance, Luxor empathetically surveys the crossroads between trauma and recovery."[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[5]

Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 4/5 stars, praising the actors' performances and writing, "Like director Joanna Hogg, Durra excels at suggesting subtexts and undercurrents threaded through everyday conversations."[3] Tara Brady of The Irish Times gave the film 3/5 stars, writing, "A straight companion piece for Hong Khaou's meditative Monsoon, Luxor offers a strange marriage of travelogue, post-traumatic stress disorder, spirituality and something like romance."[6]

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a satisfyingly meditative, history-laden space, one that asks us to consider how we reconcile our experiences with our present, and, as a result, with whom we want to be."[7]Variety's Jay Weissberg wrote, "Saleh has a solid résumé in international productions including TV, and he's well-paired with Riseborough in the way he exudes a gentle solidity that Hana needs yet also partly resists, unsure if she can cope with any more emotional attachments."[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Luxor".
  2. ^ "luxor". www.sundance.org. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  3. ^ a b Felperin, Leslie (2020-11-04). "Luxor review - beautifully sparse character study amid Egypt's ancient glory". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  4. ^ "Luxor". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 30, 2023. Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "Luxor". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  6. ^ Brady, Tara (November 6, 2020). "Luxor: Aimless drama frustratingly resists Egyptian politics". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  7. ^ Abele, Robert (2020-12-03). "Review: 'Luxor' and Andrea Riseborough contemplate the essence of being". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  8. ^ Weissberg, Jay (2020-01-27). "'Luxor': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
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