فص ملح وداخ

Gawdat Shawkat Rostom (Abdulrahman Abu Zahra) is an eminent figure in the theater world. In the 1950s, he established the "Laughing and Crying" Theater to elevate public taste, and married stage star Samia Sami (Safia El Emari), who dazzled him as Ophelia in Hamlet. To ensure the theater continued its mission after his death, he safeguarded it by consulting an African sorcerer—author of the ancient book of curses—to cast a spell upon anyone who repurposes the theater for any enterprise inconsistent with its purposeful theatrical mission. The curse would strike with the sound of the stage chimes at precisely nine o'clock in the evening, sucking the violator away and transporting him elsewhere. Gawdat also arranged with a flower shop to deliver flowers to his wife on their wedding anniversary for thirty years after his death, paying the entire cost upfront. Gawdat passed away, as did the shop owner, leaving the florist's daughter, Zahra (Heba Magdy), to handle sending the flowers to his aging widow, who had retired from the arts and abandoned the theater for years. Businessman Dawood El-Galtay (Jehad Saad) casts a covetous eye on the theater. Dawood manages the estate of his nephew, Bakry El-Seryakousy (Amr Abdul Gelil), whom he raised from childhood and employed in the companies he runs. Dawood asks Bakry to negotiate with Samia Sami to purchase the theater. Bakry dreams of reuniting his university acting troupe to stage Shakespearean plays on its boards. He visits the retired artist Samia Sami's home, where he crosses paths with Zahra, who has arrived with the annual flower delivery; the two get acquainted and take a mutual liking to one another. The artist, living in nostalgia, shares with them that she spent the best days of her life on stage in a different era with different people, back when art was true art. Assuming Bakry and Zahra are a married couple, she offers them advice and agrees to sell the theater without confirming Bakry's identity, trusting that the theater protects itself. However, Uncle Dawood converts the venue into a cabaret to maximize financial returns, exploiting the weakness, hesitation, and passivity of Bakry, who fails to voice his objection. The curse strikes Bakry, whose name appears on the deed. Every evening at nine o'clock, with the striking of the theater chimes, he is sucked from wherever he is and blown to an unwanted, improper location at the worst possible time: he bursts in on his university acting classmate Amir (Mustafa Abu Sreaa) during an audition, ruining it, and drops onto his friend Karim (Amjad Abed) during a magic performance at the circus, disrupting the act and getting Karim fired. He even materializes before his beloved Zahra at awkward moments, prompting her mother (Inaam Salousa) to report him to the police. He is arrested, but Zahra helps him get released from the precinct. Driven by the curse, Bakry ends up in a psychiatric hospital, where he undergoes severe electroconvulsive therapy. Realizing that he is harming himself and others because of the curse—which must be broken—Zahra urges him to cast aside his passivity and hesitation, take a stand, confront his uncle, and restore the theater to its former glory; however, Bakry's fear of confrontation holds him back. When his affliction intensifies, feeling he has lost his identity, memories, and friends, and on the verge of losing Zahra, he summons his courage and confronts his uncle, who agrees to transfer the theater deed into his own name. At precisely nine o'clock, the uncle is sucked away and blown to the psychiatric hospital, where he is subjected to electric shock therapy and faces the same cycle of curses that had tormented Bakry. Compelled by this ordeal, Dawood reluctantly agrees to restore the theater to its original purpose. Bakry and his university theater colleagues go on to stage outstanding theatrical performances, and Bakry marries Zahra. (Fas Malh We Dakh)

• CategoriesComedyThriller