Aisha Can't Fly Away (2025) Review: Dread on Cairo's Margins

Is Aisha Can’t Fly Away worth watching?

Yes, for viewers drawn to challenging festival cinema. Aisha Can’t Fly Away is a tense, disquieting portrait of a Sudanese migrant in Cairo that uses the tools of horror to show how fear shapes a life on the margins. Director Morad Mostafa builds an atmosphere of constant threat and pairs it with a quietly compelling central performance. The reservation is that the film is slow, oblique and long, and its drift from social realism into something stranger will frustrate viewers who want either a clear drama or a conventional genre film.

What is Aisha Can’t Fly Away about?

Aisha (Buliana Simon Arop) is a 26-year-old Sudanese woman living in Ain Shams, a Cairo neighbourhood with a large community of African migrants. Tensions between Egyptians and the area’s different African communities often turn violent, and with the authorities showing little interest, rival gangs have taken control of the streets.

Aisha keeps her head down and works to survive, but safety has a price. When one of the gangs offers her protection in exchange for a favour, her already fragile situation takes a darker turn, and the pressure on her begins to show in ways that are as psychological as they are physical.

Aisha Can’t Fly Away is directed by Morad Mostafa, whose name also appears as Murad Mustafa. It is an Egyptian film in Arabic, running 131 minutes, and it won Best Narrative Feature at the Balinale festival in 2026.

A neighbourhood that feels like a trap

Mostafa’s great strength is atmosphere. Ain Shams is shown as a place of narrow streets, cramped rooms and watching eyes, where a walk home can feel dangerous and every interaction carries an unspoken negotiation of power. The camera often stays close to Aisha, limiting what the audience can see and heightening the sense that threats may come from anywhere.

The film’s sound design adds to the unease. Street noise, sudden silences and unsettling ambient sounds create a mood closer to horror than to straightforward social drama. The genre elements are not about jump scares; they express how living under constant threat distorts perception and wears down the body and mind.

A quiet, watchful performance

Buliana Simon Arop gives Aisha a guarded, watchful presence. She says little, and much of the character’s inner life is conveyed through tension in her face and body, moments of exhaustion and the small ways she tries to protect herself. It is a performance that draws the audience in rather than demanding attention, and it anchors the film even when the story becomes elusive.

The supporting characters, from gang members to neighbours and employers, are sketched as parts of a system of control rather than as fully developed individuals. That choice keeps the focus on Aisha’s experience, though it also limits the film’s emotional range.

Ambiguity at a cost

The film’s slow pace and elliptical storytelling are deliberate, but at over two hours they can test patience. Scenes linger, key developments are left unexplained, and the shift toward surreal, horror-tinged imagery may feel more puzzling than revealing to some viewers. Mostafa’s refusal to spell things out gives the film its mystery, but it also makes the story harder to engage with on an emotional level.

Who should watch Aisha Can’t Fly Away?

It suits viewers who appreciate slow-burning festival drama, stories about migration and survival, and genre-bending films that blend realism with unease. Allow more than two hours and patience. It includes violence, threat and disturbing imagery, making it best for adults.

If it intrigues you, consider these next:

• Capernaum, another powerful Arabic-language drama about people surviving without papers or protection.
• To a Land Unknown, a tense story of refugees trying to escape a life of limbo.
• Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo, another recent Egyptian film about vulnerable lives on the edges of Cairo.

The verdict

Aisha Can’t Fly Away is an atmospheric, unsettling drama that captures the fear and precarity of migrant life in Cairo through a haunting central performance. Its length and ambiguity will not suit everyone, but it is a distinctive and serious work that rewards patient viewers.

Rating: 3.5/5