Ramy – Frank

By: Ariba Bhuvad

Young Farouk/Frank (Amr Waked) is recording a message for his dad on a tape recorder, filling him in on his life and struggles as a waiter, a night school student and a father. He misses his family back in Egypt and wants nothing more than for his father to be proud of him. Even though Farouk and his dad didn’t see eye to eye, he wants his dad to know that he’s happy and optimistic about his goals. 

Farouk hopes that his father and mother will get to meet Ramy (Ramy Youssef) one day. He’ll bring the family to Egypt and they’ll be a family again. In the meantime, Farouk gives Ramy all the love he can, promising him that he’ll be his friend and partner always. 

In the present Farouk, or as he tells others “Frank,” is at the coffee shop. He hasn’t told anyone at home that he got fired from his job and has been spending his days looking for a new one. The only thing that really cheers him up is watching soccer games, which he does when he “gets home from work.” But on this day Ramy has something special to ask Farouk and Maysa (Hiam Abbass). They know something is up when Ramy goes out of the way to sit down and watch television with them. Lo and behold he tells them about Zainab (MaameYaa Boafo) and that he’s considering getting married to her. While Maysa is asking for Zainab’s Instagram handle, Farouk is extremely flustered. He’s not sure if Ramy understands what it means to be married. 

Ramy tries to comfort him and say that he and Zainab are planning on paying for the wedding, and might need a little help from them if even that. For someone who isn’t working, Farouk is freaking out internally especially because there is no income coming in. He uses Boomer (Mika) as an example of how unprepared Ramy is for all of this. And since he can barely raise Boomer, how will he ever raise his own children. 

Once Farouk finds out that Zainab is the Sheikh’s (Mahershala Ali) daughter it pisses him off even more. He wishes Ramy could be smarter about all of this and then proceeds to say something might be wrong with Zainab since she is still single. Farouk storms away angry while Ramy is left wondering what’s going on with him. Maysa is too busy looking for Zainab on Instagram to pay attention to what’s going on and she finally finds her only to be shocked that Zainab is not who she imagined, a/k/a she’s black and not Arab. 

Farouk is back at the coffee shop calling places he’s applied to hoping for an answer about his application. Unfortunately, his laptop dies and he has to go back home to get it. The only issue is that if he goes home and Maysa is there she’ll ask why he’s home. He makes sure that she isn’t there and goes back and ends up noticing that Boomer is acting strange. So, he takes him to the veterinarian (Meredith Holzman). It turns out Boomer is depressed and needs medication so the vet prescribes Xanax for him. The situation with Boomer makes Farouk more anxious about Ramy’s decision and he’s pretty certain that Ramy is ruining his life. Maysa attempts to talk him down and to have an open mind for Ramy’s sake. So, reluctantly, Farouk agrees to meet with Zainab and the Sheikh. And by the way, Maysa throws in that they haven’t gotten any of Farouk’s paychecks from the last two months so he needs to follow up with them. Stressed from it all, later that night Farouk takes some of Boomer’s Xanax and sits down to watch old home videos.

Farouk, Dena (May Calamawy), Maysa, Ramy, Zainab and the Sheikh all meet at Ramy’s to talk about the possibility of Zainab and Ramy’s marriage. It’s off to a rather awkward start as Maysa introduces Dena to everyone, but won’t let them talk about her for too long because she believes the focus should be on Ramy instead. Maysa is all business and wants to start talking about the logistics, especially because they have family in Egypt that they’ll have to rope in. Ramy isn’t too happy about Maysa’s premature plans and would rather she focus on the people in the room and control her enthusiasm. 

The Sheikh is in agreement and believes they should take time to make a decision and, for now, just talk and get to know each other. It’s the first time Farouk agrees with the Sheikh, but that feeling quickly changes when the Sheikh starts asking about his job. Luckily for him, Naseem (Laith Nakli) walks in, which is something Ramy is not happy about at all. The Sheikh is irked by Naseem’s presence too, as Naseem’s questions and comments are a bit on the racist side. However, the Sheikh and Zainab have no qualms about their comebacks that help Naseem see their perspective. 

Maysa then starts talking about expenses, even though Ramy would rather they do a small katb kitab (the Islamic marriage ceremony). But she doesn’t really listen and says that she and Farouk will pay for the whole thing, even though Zainab and Ramy said they would pay. Then, Naseem chimes in and says he’ll pay half and Farouk will pay the other half. This makes Farouk snap from all the pressure as he walks away.

Ramy goes out to talk to Farouk and finds out that he’s been laid off. Despite him telling Farouk not to worry, he says that it’s not a luxury he really has. As a father he has to think about everything and nothing makes him happier than seeing Ramy live with no responsibility. He likes that Ramy can live in the now while Farouk has to live in the future. This is why Farouk is hesitant about Ramy getting married because he too will have to focus on the future. As a young kid, Farouk loved soccer and wanted to be a soccer player. But for him that was always a dream that would never become reality. Ramy doesn’t think that Farouk should live in the future and says he should join them in the present. They can go through life together, but it’s hard if Farouk lives in the future. 

Back at home the Sheikh is cleaning the dishes, which catches Farouk by surprise. Farouk is extremely apologetic about his behavior. He realizes that the Sheikh cares about both Zainab and Ramy and all this time Farouk has just been nervous about letting Ramy go into the real world. Since he met Ramy it seems the Sheikh has noticed a big change in him and trusts Zainab’s decision. As a result, they should support their union. But, of course, they’ll need twenty camels for the dowry (just kidding). 

Feeling inspired by his talk with Ramy, we see Farouk wake up in the middle of the night and finds a soccer ball in the garage. And just like old home videos and his time as a kid, Farouk heads out to a soccer field with his soccer ball in tow.