Tarik Saleh's Eagles of the Republic opens Stockholm International Film Festival 2025

We are delighted to announce that Eagles of the Republic will open Stockholm International Film Festival on 5 November 2025. The film, directed by Tarik Saleh and starring Stockholm Achievement Award 2022 winner Fares Fares, was selected for the main section at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and is the final film in Saleh's Cairo trilogy, following the success of Sundance winner The Nile Hilton Incident (Grand Jury Prize, 2017) and Cannes winner Boy from Heaven (Best Screenplay, 2022).

Eagles of the Republic is a political thriller set in the powerful and glamorous Egyptian film industry, where the brightest star is drawn into an undercurrent of lust, conspiracy and propaganda. A film about a film shoot in present-day Cairo, fraught with intrigue, sex and power games, starring Hollywood star Fares Fares, Zineb Triki from The Bureau and France's hottest rising star Lyna Khoudri.

"Stockholm is my hometown. My relationship to Stockholm International Film Festival is longer than my career as a director. My first memory of the festival is from second year in high school when I went to the opening film the very first year, it was Wild at Heart by David Lynch. Me and one of my best friends Markus who is no longer with us were completely blown away, we talked about the film for months afterwards. That was 35 years ago. So it feels incredibly mighty to open this year's festival with my latest film Eagles of the Republic" says Tarik Saleh.

Tickets for the premiere will be released during the popular Sommarbio (Outddor Cinema) in Rålambshovsparken on Wednesday, August 13th. Sommarbio in Rålis is an annual highlight for film lovers in Stockholm, and this year's event is expected to draw large crowds.

As an extra highlight on August 13, Tarik Saleh will be a guest on the Sommarbio stage for an exclusive and curated Q&A, where he will talk about his work on Eagles of the Republic, the inspiration and the ideas that created the film.

At the opening of Stockholm International Film Festival on Wednesday 5 November, Tarik Saleh, Fares Fares and the rest of the cast and crew will participate in an extended Face2Face conversation after the screening of Eagles of the Republic. This is an excellent opportunity for fans to meet the creators and actors and gain an insight into the work behind the scenes.

"We are incredibly happy that Tarik will be opening Stockholm International Film Festival 2025 with his fantastic and acclaimed film Eagles of the Republic. Tarik has been to the festival before, in 2009 with Metropia and Boy From Heaven in 2022, so it feels extra nice to welcome him back to open the entire festival," says Beatrice Karlsson, programme director of the Stockholm International Film Festival.

Tickets will be available at stockholmfilmfestival.se starting 13 August at 3 p.m.

The Stockholm Film Festival runs from 5 to 16 November 2025, and more films will be announced throughout the autumn.