Eagles of the Republic is the third entry in writer/director Tarik Saleh's "Cairo Trilogy," all of which use the thriller genre to comment on political corruption and power in modern Egypt (although Saleh was born and raised in Sweden, his father is Egyptian). The first two films, The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and Boy From Heaven (2022), put Saleh on the international map, as the former debuted at Sundance and won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, while the latter debuted at Cannes, where it won the Best Screenplay award, as well as the François Chalais Prize. Like those films, Eagles of the Republic focuses on a particular arena of power struggle, in this case the Egyptian film industry.

The protagonist is George Fahmy (Fares Fares, in his fourth collaboration with Saleh), Egypt's most beloved movie star (his nickname is "The Pharao of the Screen"). As we learn early on, the film industry in Egypt is largely an extension of the autocratic government, which has been run by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he led a coup d'état in the summer of 2013 (those not familiar with recent Egyptian political and military history would do well to brush up before seeing the film). The romantic dramas that have made George a beloved star are not particularly appreciated by the government and its religious-conservative censorship board, which puts him in its crosshairs. He is pressured to take the lead role in a propaganda biopic about el-Sisi, even though he looks nothing like the president (whereas George is tall and lanky and has a full head of wavy hair, el-Sisi is short and bald).

Any and all attempts that George makes to assert himself as an actor (as an artiste) are quickly quashed by a glowering government agent known as Dr. Mansour (Amr Waked), who essentially runs the production and demands that everything adhere to the government's liking (that is, to make el-Sisi look glorious and brave and honorable). Thus, one of the film's most incisive themes is the conflict between art and politics, as the one element of George's life that could be described as noble—his commitment to his work as an actor—is constantly at odds with the needs of a propagandistic production that cares little for truth.

Otherwise, George is not a particularly honorable man. As played by Fares Fares in his fourth collaboration with Saleh, he is self-absorbed and myopic, only seeing what is immediately in front of him; he is good for no one except himself, and even that is debatable. He has a teenage son (Suhaib Nashwan) to whom he only pays minimal attention. He has been separated from his wife (Donia Massoud) for years and lives with a much younger woman (Lyna Khoudri), although he maintains his marriage due to his adherence to Coptic Christianity. His wealthy lifestyle largely insulates him from the political brutalities of the Egyptian dictatorship, which makes his experiences being coerced into making the film such an eye-opening experience, even as they also lead him even further astray in his personal life (starting an affair with the defense minister's independently minded wife, played by Zineb Triki, is probably not a good idea). George learns that he is not safe, that he is not insulated, and that his movie stardom and popularity will only take him so far with people who regularly make others disappear. There are larger forces at work all around him, which comes crashing down with particularly violent force in the film's third act. Along the way people around him are threatened, kidnapped, and even murdered, thus shattering the fantasy world his movie stardom has allowed him to maintain.

Although Eagles of the Republic is certainly a brutal film that does not tread lightly in depicting the logical extremes of authoritarianism, it is also suffused with moments of dark humor. In interviews, Saleh has said that he was initially inspired by The Choice, a 2021-22 Egyptian television series that told the story of Ahmed Saber Al Mansi, a military hero who was killed in a terrorist attack. Saleh found it quite absurd that President el-Sisi, who is a prominent character in the series, was played by Yaser Galal, a tall, handsome actor who looks nothing like the real-life Egyptian president. Thus, the central conceit in the film, that el-Sissi is so conceited that he couldn't allow someone who actually looks like him to play him on-screen, is fundamentally absurd (there is a great scene where George is getting made up to look like the president with a bald cap and prosthetic facial appliances, all of which he is ordered to remove). The distinction between screen fantasy and lived reality is also underscored in George's sexual life, as he finds his sexual prowess is waning, thus necessitating a humorously humiliating trip for intervention from a pharmacist who immediately recognizes him. These digressions add a bit of needed levity and respite in an otherwise dark and despairing portrait of the seemingly unbreakable circularity of political violence.

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