Jean Dujardin is agent OSS 117, a French secret agent who travels the globe protecting the interests of the nation he loves. He is suave and debonair, an excellent fighter and capable lover. He would be a perfect spy if not for his one great weakness: a supreme and misplaced confidence in his own superiority. When his friend and long time partner goes missing while on a mission in Egypt, OSS 117 is sent in to discover what happened to his friend, discover the information that put his compatriot at risk in the first place and establish a lasting peace in the middle east. No problem, right?

OSS 117 is clearly out of his element. The Germans, Russians, English and Americans are positioning for power behind the scenes. A ship loaded with weaponry has gone missing. The niece of the deposed Egyptian king is plotting some sort of power move. Conservative religious factions are threatening violence. And into this complicated stew of conflicting rivalries walks our hero, posing as a chicken farmer, declaring that the problem with Arabic is that it’s impossible to read and why can’t the Egyptians use a civilized, sensible alphabet? And what do you mean that Islam forbids you to drink alcohol? What sort of silly religion would do that? It’s just a fad faith that you’ll grow out of and replace with something better. You can see where this is going, to be sure, and before long the French agent has triggered a full on jihad rather than bringing about peace.

[Todd Brown, OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES Review, Twitch, 7. Mai 2008]