Yacoubian Building
- Director: Marwan Hamed
- Writer: Alaa' Al-Aswany; Wahid Hamid
- Producer: Adel Adeeb; Imad Adeeb
CGiii Comment
A 3 hour epic - of colliding cultures and religious hypocrisy.
Islam being the religion under scrutiny - its tenets ignored and obeyed simply when it is in the practitioner's favour - controversial stuff, considering it's basically all about sex, drugs, prostitution and everything else that is forbidden - but readily practiced by the Allah-fearing muslims.
It's not an easy film to watch, the oppressive, abusive and manipulative sexism is really impossible to swallow - the man with money is all-powerful (with or without Allah) and consummately vile.
Emotionally and intellectually draining, the pious will always be the powerless - this is film-making at its most dangerous, illuminating and compelling.
A scathing view of Egypt, of Islam.
Breathtaking.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor's son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone's lips, and corruption is in their hearts. European values, both refined and worldly, provide a subtext.
Cast & Characters
Adel Imam as Zaki El Dessouki;
Nour El-Sherif as Mohammad Azzam;
Youssra as Christine;
Essad Youniss as Dawlat El Dessouky;
Ahmed Bedir as Malaak;
Hend Sabri as Bothayna;
Khaled El Sawy as Hatem Rachid;
Khaled Saleh as Kamal El Fouly;
Ahmed Rateb as Fanous;
Somaya El Khashab as Soad;
Bassem Samra as Abd Raboh;
Mohamed Imam as Taha El Shazly;
Tamer Abdulmun'em;
Youseff Daoud as Fekry Abdel Shaheed;
Mohamed El Dafrawy