Berlin

The Aquarium

Genenet Al-Asmak (Egypt-France-Germany)

A former assistant director for Youssef Chahine, Nasrallah is best known internationally for his epic, 4½-hour pro-Palestinian tableau, “The Door to the Sun” (“Bab El Shams,” 2004). “Aquarium” returns to the more intimate style of his handful of other features, though there’s a sense of Euro-inspired artistic intrusion that doesn’t always sit comfortably with the material.

Two main characters are Laila Bakr (Hend Sabry), who hosts a latenight radio show in which listeners unburden their feelings (often sexual), and Youssef el-Nadi (Amr Waked), an anesthetist who likes listening to patients as they mumble under sedation. Both are observers rather than participants, taking a discreetly Olympian approach to other people’s problems.

Youssef has occasional sex with the divorced Marwa (Dorra Zarouk) and owns an apartment he rarely visits, preferring to live out of and sleep in his car, in between roaming the night streets or visiting his sick father (Gamil Ratib) in the hospital.

Laila, 32, still lives at home with her brother and mom (Menha el-Batraoui), who dislikes her daughter’s progressive radio show. Laila occasionally dates an older guy but tells her producer, Zakki (Bassem Samra), who fancies her, that she’s not looking to settle down. Her nighttime job, which also involves regular skirmishes with the radio censor (Salwa Mohamed Ali), seems to suit her.

As the film observes the pair going about their separate lives, subsidiary characters talk directly to the camera — a device that fleshes out the thesps onscreen but doesn’t advance the main drama. Latter remains pretty static until, almost 80 minutes in, Youssef ends up calling Laila’s show and discussing his life in detail. Laila gets so scared by the encounter that she tells Zakki to erase the tape.

However, even after that, the pic still fails to catch fire dramatically and move toward a satisfying final act. Ending seems to provide some sort of emotional closure (for Youssef, at least), but not for the audience.

Title comes from the name of a labyrinthine concrete garden, favored by young lovers, that’s a paradise for voyeurs such as Youssef. Nasrallah implicitly extends the metaphor to human existence as a whole — we all live in a fishbowl, etc. — but doesn’t seem to have much trenchant to say on the subject. Occasional views of the city in social flux (bird flu, political demos) don’t add anything to the central drama.

Sabry makes a feisty, independent lead and sustains interest as long as she’s onscreen, but Waked’s Youssef comes across as a cold, clinical fish. Supporting thesps are fine, as is Samir Bahsan’s atmospheric nocturnal lensing and Tamer Karawan’s soft, dreamlike score.

Camera (color), Samir Bahsan; editor, Mona Rabi; music, Tamer Karawan; art director, Adel el-Maghraby; costume designer, Nahed Nasrallah; sound (Dolby Digital), Ibrahim el-Dessouky, Boris Chapelle, Cyrille Richard, Christophe Vingtrinier; second unit director, Nadine Khan; assistant directors, Racha el-Kordy, Mona Assaad. Reviewed at CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz 2, Berlin, Jan. 24, 2008. (In Berlin Film Festival — Panorama.) Running time: 112 MIN.