Eagles of the Republic: Tarik Saleh’s solid political thriller follows an Egyptian movie star who is strong-armed into portraying the authoritarian president of the country in a propaganda film. Nothing gets easier as he becomes more involved, including his relationships with his son, his young girlfriend, and the dark forces within the government. The film is tense, but some of the events seem a bit bloated. Fares Fares is efficient as the star, a man who knows he is in deeper than he wants to be; Lyna Khoudri is OK as his girlfriend, in a role that is a bit too small to be meaningful; Zineb Triki plays a mysterious woman he crosses paths with; Amr Waked is sinister as a high-ranking officer. The production design (by Roger Rosenberg) and costume design (by Virginie Montel) are good-looking and effective. The film is quite well put together in general, and composer Alexandre Desplat’s musical score is a good fit.