From the doorstep of the title of the film "The World's Box," written and directed by Emad Al-Bahat, you know that you are inside a box that can contain everything, no matter how strange and disparate. Disparate yet united stories at the same time, connected by only a thin thread. Countless tales, as behind every person there's a story, behind every wall a tale, and at the heart of every house a narrative. Thus, you should enter the World's Box to trace the stories and know them.

Animated Puppets in the Imagination

At the beginning, the boy "Ali" watches marionette puppets play a role in the life of the puppets, depicting a love affair between a boy and a girl. The people, also puppets, gather around them, and we see the boy's marionette head being cut off by a sharp scythe. Through a bloody red light, "Ali" turns into a marionette held by an invisible hand from above. Did the filmmakers want us to know from the start that what will happen before us is a game of animated puppets? Or is what we will see what happened in the imagination of this silent boy throughout the film? The stories appear disconnected at first glance, with each of the film's five chapters (The Dream, Nightmare, Corridors of Fear, The Bet, Last Breath) separated from one another, as well as from the marionette introduction. You must search for the connection between the parts.

Thin Threads Connecting the Characters

The film attempts to establish connections and relationships between the characters through a thin thread moving between chapters, making the work appear cohesive. The boy "Ali," who we saw in front of the marionettes, is the son of Abdel Dayem, a minibus driver who will be killed by "Darbka." At the same time, "Darbka" hides a weapon he carries for Adham Hamam, who wants to kill his wife Ruby, who is in a relationship with Hatem, who will accidentally meet "Ali." Adham Hamam is followed by a bird so he doesn't commit the crime of murder, allowing the appearance of the character Sayed Marjuiha, who visits the bird, and at the same time, Sayed Marjuiha loves Fatima, who introduces us to Dr. Khaled. The characters hand over the stories to each other.

The filmmakers attempted to create intricate connections, like marionette strings, between events, characters, and the segmented chapters of the film. The setting is the same, the breaking points are the same, the loss is the same, and the injustice inflicted on the weak characters is the same. The oppressive characters come close to each other in a single line of inhumane injustice.

Internal Collapse

There is no apparent connection between the characters other than the internal collapse that is clearly visible. Abdel Dayem, Ali's father, broke from the beginning and died trapped by the loss of his son from a stab by "Darbka," and his spirit remained broken in an expressive scene even after his soul had left. Ahmed Al-Samra gave us a good expression of the state of a broken soul of a dead person. We did not see any relief in his dead facial expressions. The death of the trapped broken one. Fatima, who wanted to be happy like every girl, also broke when she informally married Dr. Khaled, who stole her honor and the informal marriage paper, leaving her broken. The poet Adham Hamam, betrayed by his wife, was also clearly broken. Ruby, the poet Adham Hamam's wife, was also broken by surrendering her body to Hatem. Even Hatem, who was domineering over those who were lower than him, was broken by those who were higher than him and possessed wealth. This appeared in his relationship with the producer. It is a circle of intertwined collapses that revolve around everyone inside the World's Box.

The Container: A Pivotal Point

In addition to this, the film contains a series of encounters, where weak characters meet tyrannical ones: Fatma versus Dr. Khaled, Abdel Dayem versus "Darbaka," Ruby versus Hatem, and Hatem versus the producer.

The container, which appeared at the end of the chapters, was specifically placed to serve as a link between the events. This was evident in the final scene, where the actors gathered in a single mass, watching the container. It was as if the filmmakers felt the connections between the chapters and characters were weak, so they used the container as a thick rope to connect the events. The box could contain unrelated things, but only if the person presenting the contents of the box made good and profound choices. If the message was exposed in the film, the last chapter was even more revealing (Last Breath). All the threads were gathered at the end of the film, and we realized it was the last breath. Did the filmmakers want to say that the whole story revolved around the container, the marionette games? Perhaps, as the container was indeed the clear and exposed pivotal point for transferring events from one chapter to another and from one story to another. As soon as the container appeared, we knew a new story was coming, even though this seemed arbitrary and far from the smoothness of marionette strings.

Scattered Stories

The cast in this film did everything they could. Khaled El Sawy played the defeated poet with a clear performance, managing to bring out the depths of the poet's brokenness. Ahmed Kamal managed to be the gentle breeze amid the cascading collapses in the film, with his facial expressions conveying a state of contentment despite the circumstances he went through. Salah Abdel-Allah also skillfully portrayed the internal deceit of his character before outwardly retaining the customary marriage document and avoiding the crime. Alaa Morsi played the character of Sayed Marjouha with a performance that made it difficult to forget this character easily, mastering his role to the extent that Sayed Marjouha's character remained stuck in your imagination after watching and perhaps evoking sympathy for him.

In the end, these scattered stories do not create a complete picture, but rather a state of collapses, exploitation, and tyranny.

It is best not to ask why these particular stories were chosen from within the vast World's Box, full of endless tales as long as the box remains open.