Mo and his boyfriend Hisham, a gay Egyptian couple, return from the U.S. to Egypt for a family emergency, but they need to pretend to be just friends in order to stay safe in Egypt’s very homophobic environment. Coming back to Egypt, however, leaves Mo especially anxious and uneasy, because someone knows his secret. They leave witchcraft at his door so that he feels threatened and ashamed. Although he pretends to be a modern American atheist, and therefore free from the superstitions of his religion and culture, Mo is terrified. Stepping into the witchcraft has revived childhood terrors and deep religious fears, and he is afraid that his shame will be exposed to Hisham, who doesn’t know that Mo still views their relationship as sinful. Little by little, the judgment day he always feared, the god he always hated, the mother who stood against him, and the sins accumulating begin to quite literally haunt him through the witchcraft, leading to the confrontation Mo always feared. Will he be strong enough to fight back and eventually be liberated?
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“Religious trauma manifested as a horror monster is probably one of the sickest concepts for a movie I’ve seen in a while.”