While, at the surface level, this film appears to be a case study of how poverty breeds extremism, it is, much more meaningfully, about emasculation breeding desperation. Tarek finds himself, from childhood to adulthood, unable to establish himself as an authority figure, and as time passes, more desperate in his pursuit of doing so. In the beginning, this is shown with his fighting over whether he conceded a goal or not, with his brother bailing him out eventually. Then you…
