This summer film season, the recently released comedy Ex Merati (My Wife’s Ex) has been drawing huge revenues at the box office. This fact piqued my curiosity, especially after friends recommended it as hilarious.

The star, Hisham Maged, had made an impact with his Ramadan TV series Ashghal Shaqa (House Duties), in which he showcased a unique and remarkable sense of humour. Maged was already well-known as part of a comedy trio, with Chico and Ahmed Fahmy (the latter also a screenwriter), who started a production company named Tamr Hindi during their university years, parodying classic Egyptian films. This led to producer Mohamed Hefzi making their first TV show, Afish wi Tashbih (Poster and Search, 2006)  directed by Amr Salama. Each episode was a parody of different Egyptian film. The trio also starred in Samir & Shahir & Baheer (2010) by director Moataz Al-Touni and Banat Al-Aam (Female Cousins, 2012) by director Ahmed Samir Farag.

Since they broke up, Ahmed Fahmy departed from the path of comedy, starring as Gaber, a serial killer, in the Shahid VIP drama Saffah Al-Giza (The Giza Killer, 2023)  directed by Hadi Al-Bagoury. Because it is based on true crime, the series was a success despite its shortcomings. Chico, for his part, continued with comedy, starring in the Ramadan TV series Khaled Noor wa Walado Noor Khaled (Khaled Noor and His Son Noor Khaled) directed by Mohamed Amin.

Ex Merati, co-written by Karim Sami and Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, is evidently based on a Hollywood comedy. And for that reason it doesn’t work too well as a credible Egyptian story, but it certainly delivers on the laughs. It is directed by Al-Touni, an actor and a director who worked with the trio on such series as Al-Laeba (The Game). Born in Cairo in 1979, a graduate of the Higher Cinema Institute’s Directing Department, Al-Touni assisted  directors like Amr Arafa and Ahmed Saleh on Africano (2001) and Harb Atalia (Italy’s War, 2005), respectively, and played comedy roles in films like Laebet Al-Hob (Love Game, 2006), Tito (2004), Abu Ali (2005) and Aaz Ashab (Dearest Friends, 2009).

The film is the story of a famous, aristocratic psychiatrist, Youssef (Hisham Maged), a weak character who works as a psychiatric counsellor at prisons besides receiving patients at his private clinic. He is asked with assessing Taha (Mohamed Mamdouh), a prisoner who is about to be released for good behaviour despite his long criminal record, filled with violence. A kind of friendship develops between Youssef and Taha, with the latter invading and ruining his life on his release.

The twist, however, is that Youssef discovers that Taha is the ex-husband of his wife Sahar (Amina Khalil), and that Sahar’s allegedly fatherless son whom he has been bringing up is Taha’s. Taha is determined to find Sahar and, should she turn out to have married, kill her husband. And so Youssef, intimidated, goes to incredible lengths to hide the fact from him. The difference of backgrounds and the complex deceptions create immense comic potential.

The film manages to be gripping as well as funny, thanks largely to Maged and Mamdouh as well as Khalil’s performances (Mamdouh has been in every Egyptian commercial film for two seasons now). The humour is layered and effective, and it is aided by interesting cameos towards the end. Notwithstanding the lack of a credible script – neither the characters nor their relations are in the least convincing – viewers have been delighted.

At one point, Taha’s criminal friends (including  Khaled Kamal, Ali Sobhi and Mohamed Otaka) are at Youssef’s house when Youssef’s parents (Olfat Imam and Emad Rashad) arrive to celebrate Youssef’s birthday. And the respectable aristocratic couple ends up dancing, stoned out of their minds, with the former convicts. Taha is trying to impose himself on Sahar’s life, but is eventually convinced that it is in the child’s interest to let Youssef continue to bring him up. And another weak aspect of the screenplay that didn’t please viewers as much is the preachy moralising this occasions.

This comedy brings to mind the classic play Ana wi Howa wi Heya (Me, Him and Her, 1963), starring Fouad Al-Mohandes and Shwikar and directed by Abdel-Moneim Madbouli. It is the story of a lawyer who falls in love with a young woman he meets by accident during a trip to Fayoum and, due to a misunderstanding, mistakes her for the mistress of a gangster out to kill her and her lover.

The film’s success can be seen as the culmination of the long-standing collaboration between Maged and Al-Touni, whose partnership began in 2010.

Maged’s own latest film before Ex Merati was Ahmed Al-Gendi’s Fasel min Al-Lahazat Al-Laziza (An Episode of Pleasant Moments), in which he stars alongside Hana Al-Zahed, Bayoumi Fouad and Mohamed Tharwat.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly