On Sunday, the 6th of August, a 24-minute-long sci-fi comedy called Haseb Tehlam saw the light of day. The film produced by Enaho Films, with the assistance of ARROW Productions, is the first-ever proper Egyptian movie to be premiered on YouTube. Since it has received such positive reviews, it is expected to open the doors for the online release of future indie projects stuck in production limbo.

Enaho Films was started in 2018 by the duo Mohamed Rabie and Mahmoud Maged, the latter being Hesham Maged’s younger brother, who shares not only his genes but also his talent. Before this film, Mahmoud’s credits included co-writing last Ramadan’s Kashf Mesta3gel and playing the role of 3agamy in the third season of El Le3ba.

As for Rabie, his directorial debut was Enaho’s award-winning movie, Maktoob, which received an honourable mention from Cannes Short Film Festival, won the Best Comedy Short Movie Award at Thessaloniki Film Festival, and premiered in the first edition of the Hollywood Arab Film Festival. He additionally directed the collaborative short El Faramel Wel Neswan, co-starring Hassan Abu El Rous and Mahmoud Maged, with Careem’s super-app.

Haseb Tehlam takes viewers on a journey with its main character, Karim, who’s against social media but is pressured into setting up a Facebook account. Upon his sign-up, he falls prey to the metaverse’s latest update in the terms and conditions, which flips his life upside down. The film is written by and stars Mahmoud Maged alongside the late Ahmed Khalil and Laila Ezz El Arab. It also presented many fresh faces, namely Ahmed Gamal Saeed, Dalia Shawky, Gehan Shamashergy, Bakri Khaled, Kamal Eldebieky, Mohra Medhat, and Nada Nader, with room to shine.

While many have made references to the movie being similar to Black Mirror’s first episode of its most recent season, Joan Is Awful, the mere fact that an Egyptian-based indie film was able to come up with a relatively close idea to an episode from one of Netflix’s hit series shows how talented the minds behind Haseb Tehlam are! As for those pointing fingers at the filmmakers, blaming them for copying the show’s episode, the unfortunate events of Ahmed Khalil’s loss will always prove that this project was filmed before 2021.

The movie is a breath of fresh air, especially with the low-quality jokes featured in supposed comedies lately. The use of innovative and up-to-date concepts and humour that fits all generations is a drive to the film’s success. It’s very similar to what we experienced almost a decade ago with the trio Hesham Maged, Shiko, and Ahmed Fahmy, where they introduced us to a whole new, updated, and upgraded version of comedy that was very much needed in the industry. This sounds like a fresh start to the revival of comedies and an introduction to an alternate route for the release and premiere of independent movies created by a talented new generation.

You can check out the film for yourself here.