Anyone familiar with Tarek Saleh’s 2017 political drama The Nile Hilton Incident will have some idea of what to expect from his latest: a subtle character piece that hits all the beats of an intense conspiracy thriller. It starts when Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), the son of a poor fisherman, receives a scholarship to a prestigious university in Cairo, the power base of Sunni Islam. His family sees it as a gift from God, but Adam’s fortune sours when the school’s Grand Imam dies.

Fearing a hardline replacement, the government tasks secret serviceman Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares) with recruiting a spy, which is how Adam finds himself caught between a rock and hard place in a film that shows how the politicisation of religion – and vice versa – is the great poison of our times.