Sheikh Jackson

When the King of Pop died in 2009, he left a whole world of fans devastated. For one of them, the young imam Khaled (Ahmad Alfishawy) in Egypt, the moment is the beginning of a travel back to when he first heard Michael Jackson’s music. The contrast between Khaled as a teenager growing up in a liberal society (brilliant played by Ahmed Malek), and the strict religious life he is living as a young man is striking. What happened? Director Amr Salama lets the story shift between past and present, and the result is an exciting character study of a man struggling to meet the Egyptian society’s expectations to him and his masculinity.

But, Sheikh Jackson is far more than a drama: here are MTV-inspired dreams, moonwalking and other, easily recognizable dance moves, that makes this an all-consuming declaration of love to one of the world’s most famous artists and his fans.

Amr Salama (b.1982) is from Riyadh in Saudi-Arabia. He has directed films like On a Day Like Today (2008), Asmaa (2011) and Excuse my French (2014). In 2011, he made the documentary Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Politician together with Tamer Ezzat and Ayten Amin. Sheikh Jackson is his latest film, which premieres at Toronto film festival.