Movie Name : Vote for Dr. Seliman Abdel-Basset
Actress Name : Madiha Kamel
Character Name : Ibtesam
Year : 1981
In 1981 movie Vote for Dr. Seliman Abdel-Basset. Actress Madiha Kamel plays as villainess Ibtesam. One of the reason I love watching Giancarlo Esposito especially playing Gus Fring is that his character reminds me of Adel Imam the most popular Arab actor of all time, especially his role in The Humans and The Jinns where he played the Jinn Jalal Sultan which similar to playing demon, he's one of the most charismatic Arab actors and most roles he played are either evil or at least negative roles, that's why he's the most known and popular actor in the Arab world, and this movie one of his top ten movies of him, with the beautiful Madiha Kamel.
Seliman is a perfect man, having a perfect job, very respected in society, but he's facing troubles in marriage, being at home put additional pressure on him, while Ibtesam is a sex worker, who face financial problems as the morality police always raid the night club she go to, which made her unwanted to be there by the owners, so she go to the nightclub asking for a drink as a customer in order to find someone who would escort her to her place.
While Ibtesam was in the nightclub some guy she scammed recognized her, at the same time Seliman entered the nightclub, Ibtesam noticed how naive Seliman, looked, thinking that he would be the perfect target for the night, she approached him and went to sit on his table and flirt with him.
The owner then order to kick Ibtesam and Seliman out of the night club so he doesn't get into trouble, so Ibtesam and Seliman went to the apartment that was given to Ibtesam by one of her lovers Tawfiq.
Tawfiq then entered the bedroom to find Ibtesam sleeping with Seliman, he attacked Seliman, they fought together, the fight ended with Seliman killing Tawfiq.
Although Seliman killed Tawfiq in self defense, for such incident to public, he would lose his family, his career and his political ambitions, so, with the help of Ibtesam, they decided to cover it, he convinced Ibtesam that he spent 17 years studying and teaching the law, and know how exactly to handle such situation.
To make sure that Seliman won't frame her, she asked him to give her his ID plus his underwear.
What Ibtesam and Seliman didn't know is that Tawfiq's assistant waited for him in the car while Tawfiq went upstairs to check for Ibtesam, and witnessed them lifting his body and putting it in the car.
Dr. Seliman being respected law professor he had influence and connection, one of them was his friendship with the DA, he went to the DA in order to get supervise the case closely and make sure they don't get anything that would incriminate him, at the same time Tawfiq's assistant Zaghlool el-Qarmuti played by the great actor Ahmed Rateb paid a visit to Ibtesam's apartment, after collecting information about Dr. Seliman, he found that it's his time to make a move towards the two villains, and waited for Dr. Seliman to come to her apartment to find Zaghlool there.
Zaghlool blackmailed both Ibtesam and Seliman in exchange of his silence, he demanded Seliman to give him third of his monthly salary, plus Seliman would have to use his position in the university to help students from powerful families to get high grades, giving Zaghlool more influence over such powerful families. As for Ibtesam, Zaghlool Hints that he's gay, so, he's not interested in sleeping with her, but he wants her to sleep with his friends, giving him more power and influence on them.
Seliman came up with a plan to get rid of Zaghlool thinking that by doing so, his life will get finally back to normal and he can put everything behind him, so, he met with Zaghlool and made sure that his death look like an accident.
The cops were already looking for Zaghlool thinking he's the one responsible for killing Tawfiq, as he's the last one to be seen with him, but with Seliman killing Zaghlool, the DA suspected that there's another killer responsible for Zaghlool's death.
It's very intersting that the DA was discussing the case with Seliman, and taking his opinion on how Zaghlool died and how he thinks about the case, and Seliman brought some intersting points, but not exactly what happened, just a scenario of what could've happened to Zaghlool, and during their conversation the investigator told Seliman that they arrested everyone that could be with Tawfiq before his death. Seliman panicked and went to check Ibtesam out to make sure if she's arrested or not, he found out she's not arrested. Later the cops raided Ibtesam's apartment, and searched the apartment to find Seliman's underwear with his ID, which led them to solve the case and arrest both Seliman and Ibtesam. I don't know if Seliman grew a love for Ibtesam as when she opened the door for him and found out she's not arrested, he gave her a hug, which seemed very emotional, it could be out of pure selfishness and being happy that she's not gonna snitch on him, or could be because he actually cared about her and have feelings for her, also Ibtesam assured him that she was never to snitch on him, and being sweet on him afterwards, also could be a genuine feelings she had for him after he hugged her, or could be her exploiting him as she did with Tawfiq, anyways, the movie would make a great drama and would be great as a TV show with the complicated relation between Ibtesam, Aliyyah, Seliman, and Zaghlool, plus exploring the life of sex workers, frauds, and politics.
I really love this movie, most characters in the movie are great, everyone play a role in the movie, I love how the character Seliman kept changing during the movie, and I love Ibtesam, Madiha Kamel is one of the most Arab actresses for me, I really love watching all her movies, Zaghlool also one of the most intersting and one of my top favorite characters played by Ahmed Rateb.
