Princess Al-Tarouk (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies)

Princess Al-Tarouk

Scattiness (2)

Scattiness (1)

Scattiness (3)

Princess Al-Tarouk is a secondary villainess in the 2006 French 007-parody OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (original title Le Caire Nid d’Espions). She is played by Aure Atika.

We meet Princess Al-Tarouk for the first time as a scene opens in Rome, where she lies on a hotel bed, dressed in evening gown, making out with Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117. The princess operates under the false identity of a Lebanese journalist and attempts to kill Hubert with a knife. Her attempt is thwarted by OSS 117, and, moments later, the villainess finds herself tied to the bedposts. We learn that she is, in fact, the niece of Egypt’s ousted king Farouk. Conspiring his reinstatement, her mission is to transmit an envelope to her uncle. This probably contains information about an arms shipment. Seemingly infuriated by her failure to kill the French secret agent and at getting captured in this way, she insults OSS 117 by calling him all sorts of names. As he is about to leave, however, she begs him to make love to her, insists on remaining tied up and even asks to be gagged.

It should at this point be repeated that the film is a nonsense comedy appealing to surreal humour, therefore the plot and characters do not always make full sense.

In her next scene, the princess makes a surprise appearance in Hubert’s hotel room in Cairo. She has hired an assassin to kill OSS 117 there and then, but again this fails. After the assassin has been thrown off the balcony, the villainess finds herself alone and defenceless before the secret agent. Feigning defiance at first, it soon becomes clear that she must secretly enjoy getting captured by Hubert, as she quickly submits and offers herself to him once again moments later.

Princess Al-Tarouk finally appears in a scene where OSS 117 and the heroine, Larmina (Berenice Bejo), confront the main villain on the docks. After shooting the man, the villainess engages into an intense catfight with Larmina. The two women tear each others’ clothes off so that they end up fighting in their underwear. After a balanced fight, where both get their share of kicks and punches, the villainess takes the upper hand and manages to regain control of her gun. Hubert, who watched the catfight with great delight, decides to put an end to this and shoots the gun out of the princess’ hand. Angrily agitating his pistol at her, he inadvertently pulls the trigger a second time, this time hitting the princess directly. We hear a thud sound as her body hits the ground. In the following scene, the princess lies outstretched on the docks, dead as a doornail. Hubert, who did in fact not intend to kill her, is slightly embarrassed. Larmina, on the other hand, seems to have no such regrets as she rushes off to catch the remaining villains without paying any attention to the ill-fated princess’ dead body.

Leg scissors

Desperation

Always regal.