OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

2006 1h 39m FR

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 1,908

CrimeActionAdventureComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Set in 1955, French secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath/OSS 117 is sent to Cairo to investigate the disappearance of his best friend and fellow spy Jack Jefferson, only to stumble into a web of international intrigue.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Jean Dujardin
Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117
Bérénice Bejo
Larmina El Akmar Betouche
Aure Atika
La princesse Al Tarouk
Philippe Lefebvre
Jack Jefferson
Konstantin Aleksandrov
Setine
Saïd Amadis
Le ministre égyptien
Laurent Bateau
Gardenborough
Claude Brosset
Le patron

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Writers: Jean-François Halin
Languages: German, French, Arabic
Countries: France, Belgium

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 20 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, French, Arabic.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, Belgium.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "OSS 117 Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, shot by Guillaume Schiffman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Kamel Ech-Cheik. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Reynald Bertrand shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo and Aure Atika carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michel Hazanavicius directs. Guillaume Schiffman behind the camera. Kamel Ech-Cheik scores. Reynald Bertrand cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France, Belgium. Dialogue in German, French, Arabic.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 20 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, French, Arabic.
3International production across 2 countries: France, Belgium.
4Part of the "OSS 117 Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, shot by Guillaume Schiffman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Kamel Ech-Cheik. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Reynald Bertrand shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo and Aure Atika carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt0464913 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 8 themes, including "france", "cairo", "nazi", "espionage".

The technical file

Cinematography: Guillaume Schiffman
Original score: Kamel Ech-Cheik
Editing: Reynald Bertrand
Production design: Maamar Ech-Cheikh
Costume design: Charlotte David
Makeup / hair: Betty Beauchamp
Stunt coordinator: Philippe Guégan
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Status: Released
Budget: $15,200,000
Box office: $23,055,884
Return: 152% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Part of

OSS 117 Collection

A French spy franchise based on Jean Bruce’s novels about Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a dashing, often arrogant secret agent.

Also by

Michel Hazanavicius

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-05-11
★ 9/10
This was a solid debut for Hazanavicius and a very fun film. There's uneven pacing, but I was very pleased with this, which seemed an interesting hybrid between the James Bond and Pink Panther film series. I loved the scoring and cinematography as well. Dujardin's character was a bit strange and the pacing was a tad uneven, but those are small flaws. This is the first of Hazanavicius' films I have seen, though I have 'The Artist' on blu. I've heard that in the sequel, he jumps a decade to the 60's--it would be interesting, if they decide to eventually continue the series, if each film could be of following decades, straight through to the present day. It was clever of the writers, through parallelism, to subconsciously suggest a linkage of the Nazis to radical Arab terrorists, so soon after 9/11, and, six years before 'Skyfall', what anyone knowing anything about espionage and counterintelligence would undoubtedly know--that all agents would probably be bisexual. I look forward to checking out Hazanavicius' other films, and hope there are eventually more in this series, for I have loved all kinds of spy films and spoofs of them, in the history of cinema.

Production companies