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A Fish and 4 Sharks
Movie

A Fish and 4 Sharks

1997 • Unknown

Woke Score
1.4
out of 10

Plot

Rose and the four thieves, Fares, Najati, Qarni and Tarif, rob a jewelry shop located in the center of the country. Each of them tries to win the money alone, hiding the jewelry, and after being arrested try to access the jewelry.

Overall Series Review

A Fish and 4 Sharks is a 1997 Egyptian comedy film and a direct adaptation of the classic 1988 crime caper, A Fish Called Wanda. The plot centers on Rose (Warda), the sole woman in a gang of five thieves who successfully rob a jewelry shop. The entire narrative is driven by the double-crossing, as each thief attempts to outwit the others to gain sole possession of the hidden jewels after one of the men is arrested. The film is a pure farce, relying on the comedic chemistry of its famous cast and the escalating incompetence of the male characters. The conflict is purely about individual greed and ambition for material wealth, not social commentary, cultural critique, or political ideology. Its focus is a timeless criminal competition rather than a modern socio-political lecture.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The movie is an Egyptian production with an Egyptian cast, filmed for a local audience, and does not engage in Western-style identity politics. Characters are defined purely by their role as criminals and their individual greed and competence, not their immutable characteristics. There is no critique or vilification of 'whiteness' or forced diversity, as the casting is culturally authentic to its setting.

Oikophobia1/10

As a 1997 Egyptian comedy, the film focuses on the immorality of a small group of thieves. The narrative does not contain hostility toward Egyptian or Western civilization, nor does it demonize ancestors or core institutions. The story is a straightforward criminal farce with a universal theme of greed, not a critique framed as civilizational self-hatred.

Feminism3/10

The female lead, Rose (Warda), is a highly competent and manipulative character who is instrumental in the heist and the subsequent double-crosses. She is depicted as significantly more cunning and intelligent than the four male thieves, who are consistently shown to be bumbling and easily fooled. She is the 'fish' who baits the 'sharks.' This elevates the score slightly, as she functions as a superior, amoral schemer, but she operates as a classic femme fatale in a caper and does not deliver political lectures, nor is there any commentary on motherhood or anti-natalism.

LGBTQ+1/10

The movie, a 1997 Middle Eastern comedy, contains no elements of modern sexual or gender ideology. The focus is entirely on a criminal heist and individual greed. The narrative maintains a normative structure, with no centering of alternative sexualities, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or lecturing on gender theory.

Anti-Theism1/10

The plot is a secular crime story about material greed. The film does not target or demonize traditional religion, nor are Christian characters portrayed as villains. The morality is amoral—the characters are thieves concerned only with money—but this is a function of the genre and not a philosophical lecture on the subjectivity of all morality or a call for a spiritual vacuum.