Ahmed (Amir El-Masry) belongs to an Egyptian family accustomed to defeat. The soccer team they root for can’t win a single match, no matter how they follow their household-specific superstitions. And even when good things come their way, the specter of how it could all go wrong lurks around to remind them that luck is not on their side. In “The Stories,” writer-director Abu Bakr Shawky (“Yomeddine”) tracks the customs and conflicts of this clan over time, centering the real-life story of how his parents met as pen pals living in Egypt and Austria. The result is a decidedly melodramatic, yet often endearing portrait of a family and a
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