Tawfeek Barhom in Cairo Conspiracy (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Tarik Saleh’s suspenseful political drama centers on the tension between religious and state power. This age-old conflict is told through the perspective of a young man, Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), a fisherman’s son from a small village and a pawn as a conflict between the political and religious elites play out. The viewers’ perspective mirrors his—starting out, we are as ignorant of the grand scheming as Adam. Yet slowly but surely, Adam becomes wiser and proves that he is far more than a mere puppet.

Set in the teeming, sprawling city of Cairo at Al-Azhar University, one of the most important institutions in all of Islam, the film has a distinct sense of place that pulls you into its world. Adam has been selected to attend the prestigious school, and he enters it with an appropriate sense of awe, humility, and excitement. (Cairo could not be more different from his humble surroundings.) His expectations are immediately upset, however, as the grand imam of the university dies. This sets in motion the conflict between the school and the state security force, which has long wanted to install a more secular leader friendly to the government: Al-Azhar represents something of a distinct, alternate power source right in the heart of the country’s biggest city, so it is viewed as a threat.

A disheveled-looking agent of the state, Ibrahim (Fares Fares), uses students as informants to keep tabs on what’s going on inside the school: There are fears that a militant Islamic organization like the Muslim Brotherhood has a foothold within the university. Ibrahim’s goal is to snuff this group out before it spreads. Adam makes the perfect informant because he is easy to manipulate—or at least appears to be.

Ibrahim gives him a banned book that jihadi terrorists circulate and tells him to let one of the extremist students see him with it. This brings Adam into their circle, but they are too smart to be easily manipulated. The suspense and tension between the group and Adam builds skillfully. The extremists are presented in a complex, subtle way, not as merely cartoonish villains, though they’re still menacing—you wouldn’t want to be associated with them.

Yet infiltrating the underground organization at Al-Azhar is just the beginning for Adam. He finds that the game becomes much bigger when the state takes extreme measures to achieve its goal of getting the upper hand. The middle-age Ibrahim is caught up in all of this, and despite doing everything he is told to do to ensure that the state gets control over Al-Azhar, he draws the ire of his superiors. He has a dynamic arc of character growth, just like Adam, but in the opposite direction. Ibrahim begins as a merciless, intimidating figure, but gradually learns that there are other ways to achieve his goals—while Adam goes from meek to cunning.

An espionage film that dramatizes the epic struggle between politics and religion in the modern age and brings you into a part of the world that may be unfamiliar to many viewers, the intricate Cairo Conspiracy is highly recommended.