Excuse Us

Respond to the screening in 1-2 paragraphs. You may include what interested you, impacted you, or how your perspective on ME politics changed after watching the film.

7 thoughts on “Excuse Us

  1. Edwin Merino

    Excuse Us was an interesting film that highlights underlying social and political problems of Egypt in a humorous way. The scene where Karmouty creates an unemployment party to help his son Wahid stood out to me because it deals with the real societal problems that occur when young Egyptians are trapped without any access to a job, and end up working in cafes even when they have degrees in philosophy. The state’s only presence seems to be embodied in the police who are constantly out to get poor Karmouty, and the police chief even has a portrait of Mubarak.

    The portrayal of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was interesting as well. Karmouty and Wahid seemed to be caught between two forces, Saddam and the United States, both which are not necessarily favored by the Iraqi people and the as an extension the Egyptian people. Karmouty’s actions to try to go along with both Bush and Saddam can be a representation on how people deal with those governments, but in reality they have a level of popular skepticism and resentment towards both regimes.

  2. Kennedy Mugo

    Excuse us, is a satirical film about the politics of Egypt and Iraq, and is also quite didactic of all the Middle East in general. It parodies the various mechanisms used by authoritarian states to suppress people. The protagonist, Karmouty, who owns a café, is constantly in trouble with the police force for saying things against the Egyptian regime. This is a shadow compared to the secret police of Saddam’s Iraq, who arrest anyone for speaking out against the regime and place them in detention—like happened to Karmouty’s son, Wahid. Another theme that came across was the joblessness in the region. There are so many young people who are disenchanted with the economic system for not creating employment opportunites and it quite evident in a number of instances: one, the waiter in Karmouty’s café is a graduate with a philosophy degree, he rarely gets a paycheck from Karmouty and just barely gets by; two, when Karmouty organized a political party for jobless youth, even though it was a fraudulent operation scam to the youth’s money, he was able to get a large following since the youth had nothing better to do; three, the youth are left to “kill time” by engaging in activities like smoking hashshish and hookah and looking for wives, as was portrayed by the rivalry between Wahid and the man who Rhawiya was betrothed to; four, the black market is thus very vibrant because it the only option left for the youth, Wahid goes all the way to Iraq to sell Mangoes that his father ‘purchased’ through an unscrupulous deal.

  3. Catherine Gordon

    I found the film very interesting and highly entertaining. I enjoyed learning more about Egyptian culture, especially witnessing the relationships within families. Like Will and Matt, I found it interesting to see how the people of the older generation were the ones making all the decisions and were given the most respect and authority. The characters of the younger generation (Wahid, Rawhiya) were young adults, and in the US, they would be expected to be pretty independent (at least financially) of their parents by that age. The characters in the film, however were still completely dependent on their parents, and their parents mostly made their decisions for them.

    The film also provided me with the filmmaker’s/an Egyptian perspective of the US invasion of Iraq. In the film, Bush decides to name Karmouty as an enemy of the US after hearing him make a non-serious reference to nuclear weapons in Russia. Bush tries to make Karmouty state to the rest of the world that Karmouty was responsible for the acts of terrorism and brought nuclear weapons from Russia to Iraq. This demonstrates the opinion that the US invaded Iraq under false pretenses, and used nuclear weapons as justification. This is also shown when Karmouty tells Bush that he only went to Iraq to make money (selling mangoes), and says that Bush only went to Iraq to make money too.

  4. Sydney Fuqua

    Excuse Us gave an interesting portrayal of how citizens from various countries are viewed. The Egyptians almost reminded me of sitcoms with their loud and crazy family dynamics and continual problems. The constant insults of each other are quite funny and obviously come across well for a lot of people. When I heard the first threat to set someone on fire, I was rather shocked and confused. By the third threat I was laughing at the threats and how they obviously had a different connotation in Egypt. The Americans were rather simple minded and their sense of entitlement was ridiculous. I was definitely a fan of the accents though. I also found the cultural differences in how the American couple expected to be treated versus how they were treated quite funny. Karmouty’s attempts to separate them were hilarious and were made even more so when Christine’s pregnancy is discovered.

    At first I really was not sure what to think of Excuse Us. I really enjoyed the fast-paced and sometimes nonsensical dialogue but I could not always find scenes intended to be funny amusing in any way. Karmouty’s babbling and exaggerations were quite entertaining. It made me curious whether that was just a character specific trait or if that was an Egyptian stereotype the movie was mocking. On the other hand, the scenes in Abu Ghraib were slightly disturbing. On a certain level the absurdity of the scene made it funny, but it is not a situation I see as providing a whole lot of comic material.

  5. Matthew Yaggy

    First of all, in terms of the style of the movie, I felt like I was watching an Egyptian Marx Bros. movie. It has frenetic dialogue, fast paced character movement, and it’s very own Groucho in the form of the mustachioed Karmouty. I’d also like to say, I quite enjoyed the movie in all of its ridiculousness. Its satire of american culture and americans themselves was quite amusing. The halted, simplistic speech delivery of the actors portraying americans spoke volumes about the filmmaker’s/egyptian population’s opinions and conceptions of Americans. Like Will, I enjoyed the portrayal of Egyptian culture. It was interesting to see how long children stay reliant on their parents as shown by the relationship of Wahid and Rawhiya (was that her name? I can’t remember).

    I was also struck by the use of the footage of the twin towers being hit. At first I laughed out of shock and then I heard the reactions of some of my classmates, causing me to quiet down further. I wonder if this playful use of the footage is common in the rest of Egypt and the Middle East. However, i must say, I did find the proceeding jokes made at the expense of the American’s grief somewhat amusing.

  6. Ian Trombulak

    On top of being an incredibly funny movie, Excuse Us provided a very interesting look into the perceptions of America, and its invasion of Iraq, in the Middle East. Through satire, it deftly handed out cutting commentary about American arrogance and egocentrism. Karmouty’s assertion to his debt collector that the American media has declared that “the world has changed” following 9/11 — thus negating his personal debts — was funny, but also brought to bear the reality that the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Middle Eastern citizens were entirely unchanged by the attacks on America. Still in debt, still living under authoritarian dictators, and still dealing with the issues of work and family — all essentially unchanged despite America’s aggression in the War on Terror.

    Additionally, the culture clash of the young Americans in Karmouty’s cafe was interesting. John’s exclamations that “I come to Egypt twice a year, I know the prices!” and “I’m an American citizen, you son of a bitch!” were obviously jabs at American arrogance and entitlement, and they are not unfair critiques. America’s failure to adequately understand its perceived enemies has led to military fiascos both in Vietnam and now in the Middle East. When John says, “I know the prices,” the screenwriters are poking fun at the American tendency to believe we have obtained complete familiarity with a culture after only brief and shallow contact. Our military history supports this claim.

  7. William Mackey

    I thought Excuse Us’s depiction of the older generation was interesting. Karmouty and his generation were ridiculous. They were always jabbering away, making up stories, and threatening to set people on fire for perceived insults. The younger generation, in contrast, was for the most part silent. They accepted their parents’ and authorities’ tirades as a matter of course. For them, the main issue was getting away. Wahid planned on going to America, and then ended up in Iraq. His fiancee wanted to leave with him. But they were trapped. They could not go anywhere. They did not have the money or the connections, so they ended up relying on the authorities and their parents. Indeed, for them, their situation was hopeless, and that feeling, which many other Egyptians seemed to identify with, probably was a major factor behind the revolution that brought down Mubarak.

    The scene where Karmouty is trying to set up a party is also intriguing. It shows how disillusioned many Egyptians were with the opposition parties, which were, in their, eyes patronage networks, equally as corrupt as the government and the ruling NDP. However, it also showed how desperate Egyptians were for some sort of opposition or protest party during the Mubarak years. Even Karmouty’s party, which lacked any substantive platform, drew a large crowd. People were desperate for someone, anyone, to express their grievances.

Leave a Reply