Luxor (film)
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.
Luxor
Zeina Durra
Zeina Durra
- Mohamed Hefzy
- Gianluca Chakra
- Mamdouh Saba
- Zeina Durra
Zelmira Gainza
Andrea Chignoli
- January 2020 (Sundance)[1]
85 minutes
- Egypt
- United Kingdom
- English
- Arabic
Reception[edit]
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]