Perfumed with Mint
A stripped-down, Pedro Costa–esque stoner film where a traumatised generation of Egyptians drifts into the apathetic embrace of hashish to escape the shadows of reality.
Bahaa, a doctor with a broken heart, is sitting in his office when his friend Mahdy walks in. Mint is growing out of Mahdy’s curly dark hair. He tells Bahaa that smoking hash is the only way to stop the growth of the mint in his hair. If the mint is allowed to grow wild, its scent will attract the scary shadows of people of the city. Bahaa and Mahdy are forced to search for more hashish to smoke, wandering from one eerie apartment to another, longing for lost love and escaping reality.
Muhammed Hamdy showcases the bleak streets of Cairo in his debut film, which brings a new perspective to the stoner film genre. Instead of cheerful pot smoking, the mood is extremely melancholic as the men recite poetry whilst being high. With so much stripped away, the film leaves the viewer feeling intoxicated as well. The stoner films I’ve seen before have never felt like this—as if the film itself were in a haze. The atmosphere reflects the apathetic and hopeless approach to life of a generation traumatized by Egypt’s recent history. An approach in which people are constantly driven to escape the shadows of reality by embracing drugs.
Jaakko Jokinen (translated by Pauliina Jännes)
Trailer
