--- title: "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" year: 2006 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies" fi1m_id: "oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies" imdb_id: "tt0464913" tmdb_id: 15152 wikidata_id: "Q1189436" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 77 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-10-02T22:08:50.901408+00:00" updated: "2026-10-02T22:09:19.939724+00:00" region: "MX" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) Directed by Michel Hazanavicius · 1h 39m · Crime, Action, Adventure, Comedy ## Identity OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies - **IMDb ID:** tt0464913 - **TMDB ID:** 15152 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1189436 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464913/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/15152, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1189436 **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 77 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* A man in a dinner jacket fights assassins with live chickens and never once suspects he might not be the cleverest person in Egypt > Michel Hazanavicius’s spy spoof rebuilds the Fifties thriller exactly, then hands it to a fool. Jean Dujardin is the joke and the point; the look is right down to the back projection. The gags thin out late, and it likes its idiot too much. ## Synopsis Cairo, 1955. French agent Jack Jefferson (Philippe Lefebvre) has vanished, and the service sends his old friend Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (Jean Dujardin), code name OSS 117, to find out why. His cover is Jack’s poultry business; his qualifications are a dinner jacket, excellent teeth, no Arabic and total confidence. Waiting for him is Larmina El Akmar Betouche (Bérénice Bejo), Jack’s assistant, who knows the city and has to listen to Hubert explain it to her. Around them circle Princess Al Tarouk (Aure Atika), a Russian named Setine (Constantin Alexandrov), an Englishman named Gardenborough (Laurent Bateau) and an Egyptian minister (Saïd Amadis), all wanting something from a country with Suez on its mind. Hubert attends a reception, is tailed through the streets, fights off attackers in a chicken warehouse, and remembers happier days with Jack on a beach. ## Review Michel Hazanavicius has taken a pulp hero that France once took seriously and made him an idiot. Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, code name OSS 117, was invented by the novelist Jean Bruce as a straight secret agent. Here he is Jean Dujardin in a dinner jacket, sent to Cairo in 1955 to find his friend and fellow agent Jack Jefferson (Philippe Lefebvre), armed with a cover story about poultry, no Arabic and the serene conviction that everyone he meets is lucky he is French. It is a good joke and the film gets 99 minutes from it, about ten more than it can comfortably carry. It looks right. Guillaume Schiffman shoots it the way a Fifties studio would have: hard key lights, saturated reds and turquoise, a back-projected street behind a car that does not quite match its speed. Maamar Ech-Cheikh’s Cairo is plainly built on a stage, a city of painted flats and a villa with a staircase made for entrances. Charlotte David cuts the suits a size too sharp. Ludovic Bource and Kamel Ech-Cheik supply brass, bongos and a wordless female chorus of the kind that used to mean “abroad”. Dujardin is the film. He plays Hubert with the stillness of a man who has never had a doubt, chin up, teeth out, and gets his laughs by holding a smile a beat past where anyone sane would stop. He explains Islam to Muslims. He keeps remembering Jack, the two of them on a beach in white trunks, with a tenderness that tells us more about Hubert than he will ever know. We laughed hardest, and least proudly, at the fight in the chicken warehouse, where he ends up throwing live birds at his attackers. Reynald Bertrand cuts it on the squawk. Bérénice Bejo is Larmina El Akmar Betouche, Jack’s assistant and Hubert’s contact, and she plays her as the only grown-up in it. She hears every insult, lets it pass, and the film is decent enough to hold on her face while she does. Aure Atika has fun as Princess Al Tarouk, both a lead and a distraction. Constantin Alexandrov’s Setine and Laurent Bateau’s Gardenborough are a Russian and an Englishman for Hubert to be rude to, and Saïd Amadis, as the Egyptian minister, keeps a straight face through the worst things Hubert says. The trouble is the stretching. The jokes come in three kinds, Hubert is rude, Hubert is wrong, Hubert is unbothered, and by the final half-hour the film has told each of them several times, louder. The plot exists to get him from one room to the next and knows it, which is fine until every room starts to look alike. Bertrand’s cutting, so clean in the first hour, lets the late scenes run a sentence long. The harder question is whether the film is laughing at Hubert or with him. The one serious dissent among the reviews says it lets him off too easily, and it has a point. He is wrong about colonialism, religion and women, and the film wants us to see it. It also wants us to like him, and being wrong never costs him anything. The scene where he is woken at dawn by the call to prayer and climbs the minaret to deal with it made us laugh, then made us look at our hands. The laugh was at Hubert. But the sequence was built so that the man he hits is the punchline, and we noticed. Hazanavicius, Dujardin, Bejo, Schiffman and Bource went on to make [*The Artist*](https://film.one/film/the-artist) in 2011, and the same instinct is here: a liking for an old form and the patience to rebuild it exactly before bending it. This is the rougher, funnier draft. Beside the Austin Powers films it is a clear win; it never nudges you in the ribs. Watch it with the subtitles and a drink and do not expect the story to matter. If Dujardin’s smile is funny to you in the first ten minutes, you will be fine for the next ninety; if it is not, nothing that follows will change your mind. *Fi1m score 76, published 2 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it. Seven of the eight reviews are positive, and they cluster around the same two things: Jean Dujardin’s performance, with his vacant suavity and deadpan carrying much of the comedy, and the production design, which recreates the look of 1950s and 1960s spy films with care. Several critics compare the film favourably with other spoofs of the period, Austin Powers and Get Smart among them, and a few find its satire of colonial arrogance sharper than expected. The spread is narrow, with one clear dissent. Slant Magazine finds the humour derivative and the jokes too easy, and argues the film lets its hero’s cultural condescension off lightly rather than skewering it. The AV Club, though positive, also notes the gags are modest and repetitive. Nobody disputes the craft; the disagreement is over whether the comedy under it is as pointed as it looks. ## Straight answers **Is OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies worth watching?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* is worth watching if Jean Dujardin’s unshakeable smile makes you laugh in the first ten minutes, and we scored it 76. It rebuilds a Fifties spy thriller exactly, then hands it to a fool, and the gags thin in the last half-hour. Watch it with subtitles and a drink, and do not expect the plot to matter. **How long is OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, and what is it rated?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* runs 1h 39m. It is a crime and action film. **Where can I watch OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies in Mexico?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* is not on any streaming or rental service in Mexico at the moment. It is available in 14 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, and is it suitable for children?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* has no UK certificate, and its violence is comic: fistfights, a brawl in a chicken warehouse with live birds as weapons, nothing frightening. The adult content is in the humour, which turns on Hubert being rude about colonialism, religion and women, and one scene has him strike a man calling the dawn prayer. It is in subtitled French and suits teenagers and adults rather than young children. **How does OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies compare to The Artist?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* is the rougher, funnier film; [*The Artist*](https://film.one/film/the-artist) is the more polished and the warmer. Both are Michel Hazanavicius rebuilding an old form with Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, one a Fifties spy thriller, the other a silent romance. Choose this one for laughs and the later film for a love story, though both dwell too long in their middle stretches. **Is OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies based on a true story or a book?** *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* is based on Jean Bruce’s novels about Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a secret agent France once took seriously, not on a true story. Michel Hazanavicius keeps the name and the period and turns the hero into an idiot, so this is a spoof rather than a faithful adaptation. You need know nothing of the books to follow it. ### Reviews we read (8) - **Variety**, Lisa Nesselson (85/100, inferred): Nesselson finds the spoof a remake worth making, praising its sparkling production design, retro score, and clever satire of colonial arrogance. She especially singles out Jean Dujardin’s entertaining performance and the film’s deftly sustained deadpan tone. [Read](https://variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies-1200516882/) - **The AV Club**, Tasha Robinson (B+): Robinson finds the film a slick, entertaining spy parody whose old-movie pastiche and comedy work well despite repetitive, modest jokes. She particularly praises its faithful recreation of vintage film conventions and the lead performance’s Bond-like confidence. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies-1798204369) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (80/100, inferred): Parkinson finds the spy spoof hilarious and far superior to Get Smart. He singles out Jean Dujardin’s vacuous suavity and condescension as the source of much of its comedy. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/oss-117-cairo-nest-spies-review/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (80/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the spoof an unpretentious, refreshing comedy with sharp, cheeky satire. He particularly praises its lovingly recreated 1950s look and production design. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/07/french-bond-film-review) - **Time Out**, Wally Hammond (4/5): The review recommends this light-hearted pastiche as an antidote to Quantum of Solace. It singles out the French spin on the secret-agent franchise as its appeal. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies) - **Total Film**, Total Film (4/5): The review calls the film an unexpected pleasure and says its pastiche outdoes Austin Powers. It praises the sharp 1960s espionage spoof and Jean Dujardin’s deadpan performance. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies-review/) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (2/4): Gonzalez finds the film’s humor too often derivative and reliant on easy jokes. He singles out the running gag about OSS 117’s homoerotic memories of his former agent as amusing, but says the film’s handling of the spy’s cultural condescension lets him off too easily. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (75/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the spoof so good-humoured and stylish that it rises above the average. She especially praises Jean Dujardin’s visual comedy and the film’s carefully captured mid-Fifties look. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## Details - **Director:** Michel Hazanavicius - **Director:** Michel Hazanavicius - **Novel:** Jean Bruce - **Cinematography:** Guillaume Schiffman - **Editor:** Reynald Bertrand - **Music:** Kamel Ech-Cheik, Ludovic Bource - **Production design:** Maamar Ech-Cheikh - **Costume design:** Charlotte David - **Producer:** Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer - **Cast:** Jean Dujardin as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117; Bérénice Bejo as Larmina El Akmar Betouche; Aure Atika as La princesse Al Tarouk; Philippe Lefebvre as Jack Jefferson; Constantin Alexandrov as Setine; Saïd Amadis as Le ministre égyptien; Laurent Bateau as Gardenborough; Claude Brosset as Le patron - **Runtime:** 1h 39m - **First release (France):** 19 April 2006 - **Genres:** Crime, Action, Adventure, Comedy - **Budget:** $15 million - **Box office:** $23 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T641no0uec ## Where to watch in Mexico Not streaming, renting or buying in Mexico at the last check. Also available in: AT, BE, CA, CH, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IT, NO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *OSS 117: Lost in Rio* (2009): The same idiot, a decade on, in a country he understands even less. - *The Artist* (2011), Fi1m 82: Hazanavicius, Dujardin and Bejo rebuild another old form, this time with the sound off. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-artist.md) - *Our Man Flint* (1966): The straight-faced American spy knock-off this film is quietly remembering. - *Top Secret!* (1984): Spy spoofery at a joke a second, for when deadpan is not enough. - *A Shot in the Dark* (1964): Sellers’s Clouseau, the other great Frenchman who is wrong about everything. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies