Free Trip to Egypt

There's nothing particularly sophisticated about the filmmaking in "Free Trip to Egypt," but first-time feature director Ingrid Serban succeeds in telling a simple story in a simple fashion, and it's an effectively moving effort.

Gently observing how many of our fellow Americans are full of fear while trying, in its tiny way, to do something about that, Ingrid Serban's Free Trip to Egypt offers just that to a handful of travelers.

Kidding aside, Free Trip to Egypt is a sweet story, but ultimately a little thin.

There were some uplifting moments and some real embarrassments, but overall it was intense, and a real eye-opener.

As with lunch, nothing is really free, but the trip here is still worth taking.

There's something of a "nice Borat" quality to this sweet-but-slight documentary. It confirms its premise that exposure vanquishes bigotry (though its sample size is small).

Alternatively humorous, heartfelt, awkward, ignorant, haphazard, and downright embarrassing, the film doesn't do its participants any favours despite its sincere attempt to make the world a better place.

While many of the insights shared between varying cultures won't be too surprising to most of the people predisposed to see such a film, it's still rather nice to see.

This documentary recalls Mark Twain's observation: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness."

Tarek Mounib's documentary attempts to bridge the kindness gap between Americans and Muslims with free trips to Egypt. Can we get along with Muslims? Yes. Other Americans? Maybe.